The Key to the Kingdom
by Aiijuin
Summary: The ten-year-old Son of the Goblin King ventures through Neverland, Wonderland, Oz, and Fantastica in order to save his parents - Sarah and Jareth - and finally return home to the Underground.
1. An Inconvenient Truth

**"The Key to The Kingdom"**

(c) Rebekah L. Copeland, Aiijuin Graphics 2011

*Disclaimer * Based on "Labyrinth" by The Jim Henson Company (c) 1986  
>Genre: QuestFantasy/Action/Adventure, Rated: K - for every age group  
><em>**Chapter one follows immediately below the brief full summary and the writer request. Thank you!<em>

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><p><em><span>Full Summary:<span>_  
><em>Young Jason Williams is the son of Toby Williams… or is he really?<em>

Jason 'Jaye' Williams has only two days left before his tenth birthday and plans on spending it in the ballpark with his friends, however fate has different plans for him. After being sent home from school on suspension for something that clearly wasn't his fault, his father gives him an amulet that causes Jaye to get kidnapped in the middle of the night by Captain James Hook. As the boy is sailing on his way towards Neverland, he's about to discover that he really isn't the person who he thought he was all along!

Without much choice in the matter, Jason winds up having the most exhilarating and life-impacting adventure across the universe in order to find the key to his identity and the answers to his questions. Unfortunately, everything that he needs lies somewhere in the heart of the Goblin Kingdom and it is the one place that he can't seem to reach!

Read Jaye's story as he meets new and familiar faces from Neverland, Fantastica, Oz, Wonderland and more in: "The Key to the Kingdom"

_Writer request: I implore you to read at least the first seven or eight chapters of this story before you pass judgement on it, or simply turn away. They are not that long. "Key to the Kingdom" was carefully designed to be a quest story, with undertones of Sarah Williams and Jareth the Goblin King implied within the background. **It IS a Sarah/Jareth** story, and they **DO** eventually enter into the plot, but most of the story has been written from a slightly different perspective, and therefore pioneers towards a new path that most other writers of S/J fanfiction rarely dare to venture into. Remember! The greatest adventures in life always begin with a first step! Be brave and give it half-a-chance! Thank you for reading!_

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><p><strong>Chapter One: An Inconvenient Truth<strong>

Jason Williams always knew that he was different from the other boys his own age, but the most frustrating thing was that he never knew exactly, _why?_ At nine years old, it didn't bother him that he was taller than most children in his class, nor did it upset him that he scored less-than-average in his arithmetic class. _Ha!_ In his opinion, math was boring anyway. No, Jason just knew that something was amiss in his life, which made him feel a bit misplaced in the Big Apple, and also within the upscale condo home, belonging to his mom and dad.

Williams plunged his head deeper into his hands, as he sunk miserably into the chair facing the principal's office door. He knew that he would be grounded for sure this time. All hopes of his tenth birthday party in the ballpark with his friends would be shattered once Mrs. Hibbartstein called his dad. In fact, Jason was already imagining his dad's ice-blue eyes squinting down at him in disappointment. Jason tried to muster up fake tears, but he stopped once Maggie Johnson walked by. With her chocolate brown pigtails, and beaming turquoise-colored eyes, he thought that she was sort of cute, for a girl. Although Maggie probably didn't know that Jason even existed, he simply didn't want to chance having her see him cry, and then – worst of all – having her think that he was a sissy for doing so.

"Mr. Williams," a voice squeaked from the partially-opened principal's door. Jason stiffened up, stood up, and did the best that he could in order to keep his knees from buckling under him in fear. Slowly, he pushed the door open, as a tiny, round, pasty face greeted him with a disapproving scowl from the other side of a gigantic, knotted-mahogany desk. Mrs. Hibbartstein was not much taller than Jason Williams, and her office reeked of that odious musty smell that comes from freshly tilled dirt. In fact, Jason mused to himself that Mrs. Hibbartstein was akin to a rotten old potato that had been plucked from a late summer garden with her portly, shriveled figure, and bland, rumpled, brown suit that she wore. He might have laughed to himself upon seeing her, if the situation were not so dire.

Mrs. Hibbartstein, with her chubby, pink fingers, beckoned Jason towards the opposing chair facing the front of her desk. Her whole office was modern, sterile, and white, sort of like one of those faux offices in the IKEA Warehouse downtown. Something about the contrast between the office setting, and Mrs. Hibbartstein's appearance nagged Jason's aesthetic perception until his brain had gone numb from the perplexity of it all!

Williams swallowed dryly in anticipation of his punishment and sat ever-so-carefully, so as not to make a sound, into the cool, metallic seat. He wondered if the principal might have forgotten that he was there if he behaved quietly enough. Sadly, Hibbartstein never took her black, beady eyes off of Jason the whole time since he had first entered her office. She looked down from the edge of her bulbous, red nose that was crowned with the most absurd diamond-shaped spectacles on its bridge. She began to ask in a bleating voice that was much too high-pitched to seem very threatening, "Do you know why you are here today, Mr. Williams?"

Jason shook his head, but inside his chest, his conscience was screaming at him that he knew _exactly_ why he had been sent here. However, before his mind even had a chance to chide him, Mrs. Hibbartstein opened a plain, manila folder on her desk and read, "Destruction of school property, not paying attention in class, and attempting to throw your teacher out of the window when he caught you in the act of destroying school property…"

"But that wasn't my fault!" Jason shouted in defense to the last on his list of charges. He knew that he hadn't actually tried to throw Mr. Bramble out the window, but he did think about throwing him out of the window on occasion - especially when he had received a low grade on his multiplication quiz last week. Mrs. Hibbartstein had not finished and cut Jason off before he could sputter anymore, "AND, you used profanity!"

"But… I," Jason floundered for lost words. He knew that he was downright guilty, but it was the only words that had managed to fall from his lips as he witnessed his classroom teacher dangling out the third-story window of the inner-city school by his fingertips. Jason finished, "I didn't mean it."

Then, the proceeding dreadful words silenced Jason completely. "I've called your mother and father, and have explained to them your offenses, Mr. Williams. They are driving here as we speak, and should arrive in a few minutes. I can tell you that they aren't very happy right now."

Jason wondered why they would be, especially with the extensive list of charges -_including murder_ - thrust wrongfully upon him. This time, the tears honestly welled up into his mismatched eyes, as he balled his fists stubbornly into his lap. _Why did every bad thing seem to happen to him?_ The missing family cat - Mister Twinkletoes, the hole in the closet, and the missing shoes. Not his fault, but he got blamed! Williams sniffled as he thought about his baby sister. She never had these problems. Of course, she had only learned to talk last week, with her first word being 'Jaye.' It was Jason's nickname that his mother and father had called him. Only Jason's teachers and grandmother had ever called him 'Jason.' Jason 'Jaye' Williams wiped his left emerald green-colored eye, and then his right cornflower blue-colored eye. Jason's mother called Jason's eyes, '_heterochromia iridis_,' which sounded more like a magical incantation, in Jaye's opinion, rather than a syndrome of two different colored eyes. It didn't matter anyhow. Nothing mattered anymore anyway…. Jason's parent's were coming, and he was going to be grounded forever.

As Jaye finished his last thought, a light tap at the door sounded. Mrs. Hibbartstein glanced upwards and straightened her diamond-shaped spectacles before squeaking, "Come in."

Sure enough, Jason's mother and father entered still dressed in their work scrubs. They must have driven straight from the hospital without changing first, which was unusual, because Jason never saw his mother in her long, white doctor's coat and name badge. Jason's dad looked frazzled, with his golden blonde hair twisted this way and that, as if he had raced to clean up from a post-operative procedure. Both of Jason Williams' parents worked in the local medical facility around the block from the school. They were both doctors.

Mrs. Hibbartstein stood up from her seat and shook the hands of Jason's parents as she said, "Toby and Alexia Williams, I presume?" Jason twisted his lips in disgust. _As if she didn't already know it was them!_ After all, this was hardly Jason's first detainment in the principal's office, and this was hardly the first time that Jason's parents had been called into Mrs. Hibbartstein's presence.

Jason's dad, Toby, didn't waste any time, as he asked nonchalantly, "What's he done this time?"

Hibbartstein seemed to be enjoying herself as she ran through the list of charges, all while pausing between each one to gauge Mr. & Mrs. Williams' reactions. As she had hoped, each phrase brought on a new gasp from Alexia, and a foot tap from Toby. When the parents and principal had finished discussing Jason's fate, the boy was slapped with a three-day suspension away from school. _Great,_ Jaye thought, as he knew that his tenth birthday party was only two-days away.

Jaye was escorted into the back of Toby & Alexia's silver Volvo. While they drove him home, he mulled out the side window – wondering when he would get 'the lecture.' However, much to Jaye's surprise, his parents were arguing in the front seat of the car, and not paying him much mind. Alexia Williams, who was a specialist of neuroscience, wanted to transfer Jason into another private school. She blamed the public schooling system for all of the problems that Jaye was having. Toby, who was an ICU medic, thought that it was time to tell Jason the truth.

_Truth?_

Jaye hadn't really been paying their conversation much attention, but he was curious to know what the 'truth' was. Well, it hadn't mattered anyway, because the whole topic of his punishment was derailed as Alexia argued that Jason was too young to know the truth, and both parents began to shout at each other instead of at Jaye, much to his relief.


	2. The Amulet

**"The Key to The Kingdom"**

(c) Rebekah L. Copeland, Aiijuin Graphics 2011

*Disclaimer * Based on "Labyrinth" by The Jim Henson Company (c) 1986

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><p><strong>Chapter Two: The Amulet<strong>

By the time Jason William's baby sister, Sasha, had been picked up from daycare, bathed, and fed, neither Toby, nor Alexia Williams had much energy to do much of anything. They ordered Chinese take-out for supper, and lounged around watching their favorite Discovery Health programs on the television for the first time in weeks, until they were finally interrupted by their son.

"Dad?" Jaye asked innocently, still not understanding how he had managed to get off without even a reprimand, or even a somber warning that afternoon. Toby had been taking off his shoes, when he looked up and smiled at the boy, "Yeah? What's up, Kiddo?"

Jason's stance became cautious. In all of the years that Jaye could recall, Toby Williams had never called him by that name. Something was fishy! Toby was behaving far too polite towards his son, given the circumstances of Jaye's temporary expulsion from school this afternoon. For Jason, this whole scenario felt like a trap laid out by his parents in order for him to incriminate himself. He took a step back and whispered almost inaudibly, "Wh-why didn't you… um, and mom punish me?"

Toby set his jaw forward, and hit the remote on the television, which had turned it off. Alexia left the room, because she knew that Toby was going to talk to Jason about matters that she felt her son had been too young to hear. She pushed her short, curly, auburn hair from her amber-colored eyes while she took Sasha into the bedroom with her and closed the door behind them.

Toby stood up from the sofa, and walked over to a shelf, where he pulled out a single plain, white box, similar to the kind that are used to gift wrap jewelry. It was much larger than an earring box, perfectly square, but not much wider than a CD case. Toby cracked it open ever-so-slightly, but then put the lid down tightly again as he walked back towards the sofa where Jaye stood apprehensively. The nine-year old twiddled his fingers behind his back, and awaited his father's words. Toby knelt down and took one of Jason's hands, and then tenderly placed the little box into it.

Jaye looked at his dad for a minute, until Toby commanded softly, "Open it." Jason did as his father commanded, and inside found a black cord with a large, golden charm dangling from the end. It looked like a necklace, of sorts. The charm was the most curious-shaped item that Jaye had ever seen. He raised his pointed eyebrows and asked, "Is it …one of those Star Trek thingies that those people wear on their shirts?"

Toby smirked, "Ah, No." Jaye cocked his mouth to the side in confusion and then asked, "Is – is this my birthday gift? Are you giving it to me early, Dad?"

Toby looked down and replied even softer than before, "No…" Before Jason could ask anymore questions, Toby closed his son's hand around the golden medallion and said, "It- it was given to me by your mother. It belongs to your – your… your father."

At the last words, Toby breathed a sigh of relief, as if a huge weight had just been lifted from his chest. Yet, with all of the signs that he had just been relieved of some woeful burden, a look of horrific concern replaced his expression when his ice blue eyes met those two mismatched eyes of his nine-year old 'son.'

Jaye just blinked, but Toby's words hadn't seemed to travel from the child's ears into his brain just yet. Jason sensed an urgency in what his father had just uttered to him, but he was a bit too young to comprehend its fully-implied meaning. Jaye scratched his head for a moment, and then asked, "You gave it to my mother? I mean, you ARE my father, right?"

Toby smiled at the ground, seeming too ashamed to bear the guilt of anything anymore, while he hugged Jason close to him. His crystalline eyes blinked as he answered, "This is going to be hard for you to understand, Jaye. Probably the most difficult thing that you've ever had to hear, but – but it has to be said. You want me to be honest, don't you, Jaye?"

Jason Williams squirmed nervously in Toby's embrace. He suddenly felt out of place, as if the hands that held him were those of a total stranger. Jaye pulled back. The message had suddenly clicked somewhere in the child's mind, "Are you saying that you're not my dad? Is that what you're trying to tell me? You know, not really, really my real dad?"

Before Toby could answer, Alexia stepped out of the room, cradling Sasha within her arms. Her eyes were red and puffy. Jaye turned around and faced her in a panic, "Mom? What's all this, then? Is this a joke? Is this a prank? Is this – is this my punishment for what happened at school today? I – I didn't mean it, I really, really, reee~eally didn't mean –"

Toby squeezed Jaye's hand gently and answered, "We know you never meant it, Jaye…. none of it. It's just what you are, that's all. You can't help what you are." Jaye glanced at the amulet of gold and then back towards Toby and Alexia again. Alexia placed Sasha back into her playpen, and she knelt on the ground near Toby and Jason.

"What am I, then?" Jaye finally asked after a long silence. He half-expected his mother to tell him that his dad was an alien from another planet. It would hardly surprise him, given the weird things that happened to him all of the time. The medallion on the necklace looked almost exactly like one of those Star Trek insignias that Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew had all worn, at least according to the mind of a nine-year old it had. The amulet had points at the bottom and top, and was nearly triangular in shape. In the center, there was a circle with a sideways '8' engraved within. Although it looked big and bulky to wear, there was an unusual lightness to it - almost as if it were made of feathers rather then metal. The points were smoothed on all three sides, and it felt warm to the touch, even though it had been in the box just moments before. The bottom angle - the widest part - sunk upwards towards the circle, which made the whole amulet resemble an upside-down letter 'V.' On its side, the whole artifact was not much wider than the tip of Jaye's little finger.

After another long silence ensued, Jaye looked up towards Toby again. "Dad… or um, whatever – Am I – Am I – What am I? Please tell me."

"You're magic, Jaye," Alexia finally spoke through an array of misplaced sniffles and tears.

Jaye looked amusedly from Alexia to Toby and then back towards Alexia again with a frozen smile plastered upon his face. He giggled for a second before replying with a toothy grin, "That's a wicked good joke, you know. You had me fooled, but honestly April Fool's Day was nearly a month ago. My birthday's almost here… you know, May 1st? Mommy? Daddy? Mommy? - -Mommy?"

_ Dead silence…_

"Oh, my gosh… You're going to totally tell me that I'm a wizard, or something, right? You know like Harry Potter? Oh noes, I'm not going to get a letter by owl from Hogwarts or anything, right? I mean, it's all just pretend, right?

Alexia turned towards Toby furiously, "See? I told you! He's too young to understand! Sarah told you NOT to tell him until he was thirteen! She specifically said that he would understand everything at thirteen. At least, that's what you told me anyway… _I've never met her honestly,_ " Alexia trailed off in a mumble-jumble of silent words, before continuing with a shrug of agitation, "Anyway, how can we explain something to him that we don't know anything about ourselves?"

Toby placed his hand on Alexia's shoulders and answered without taking his eyes off of Jaye, "He's the only one that can save Sarah, Allie. I don't think that she'll be able to hold out until he's thirteen. I just have…." Toby paused and then continued with a slightly defeated attitude, "it's a feeling, that's all." After Toby had finished speaking to Alexia, he returned his attentions back towards Jaye and continued, "No. I'm not you're father, Jaye."

Jaye took a step back in disbelief, but Toby read his expression and tried to comfort him as best as he could, "I know that you're only nine, hardly ten. I know that it's difficult for you to hear this, but it's also difficult for me to tell you. It much harder than you know – you must believe me - because I love you like you were my own… my own son." Jaye squinted his eyes in confusion, and Toby replied, "I don't know who your father is, Jaye, but your mother's name is Sarah. Sarah Williams. And she's my sister."


	3. Hooked

**"The Key to The Kingdom"**

(c) Rebekah L. Copeland, Aiijuin Graphics 2011

* Disclaimer * Based on "Labyrinth" by The Jim Henson Company (c) 1986

"Peter Pan" related characters were written respectively by J. M. Barrie

_WRITER'S NOTE: No! I have never read J. M. Barrie's literary classic of "Peter Pan." I only know of the closely related 2003 movie by the same name, staring Jeremy Sumpter, Rachel Hurd Wood, and Jason Issacs. If I have placed the hook on the wrong hand of Captain James Hook from the original novelized version, then I deeply apologize for my ignorance. I was referencing Issacs and not the book. Thank you!_

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><p><strong>Chapter Three: Hooked<strong>

Jaye had lain awake in his bed all night. He juggled the amulet between his fingers, while his mind raced back and forth reliving every word that his 'father' had spoken to him that evening. Of course, Jason had only partially understood that his father, Toby, had really been his uncle all along, and his mother, Alexia, had really been his aunt. Although Jaye didn't understand the process of mental scarring, he was certain that someone was going to have to shell out boku bucks for all of his massive therapy bills some years down the road as a result of this mess.

In the last hour, the wind had picked up outside, and a storm was on the rise. The rain beat fiercely upon the vast window of Jaye's bedroom. It was nearly midnight, when the muted street lights far below reflected onto the beads of water, which blanketed the great, glass panes in a glittery sheet of iridescent pearls. With the exception of the minute, shimmering halo emanating from a dim nightlight near Jaye's bed, the whole room was blanketed in an eerie black veneer resulting from the starless night sky. Storms had never bothered Jason Williams before, and he was never much of a coward, but with the unsettling day that he had just lived, he was more frightened than he could have ever possibly imagined. His heart beat so quickly and forcefully that he was certain it might explode at any moment.

Something inside Jaye told him to flee in terror, but another half instructed him to be calm, while assuring him that help was on the way. Jason had finally willed himself to close his eyes, when he was startled by a sudden crash against his window. He jumped so high in fear that he had tumbled out of his covers and onto the carpeted, blackened floor with a thud, dropping the amulet from his fingers next to the side of his bed. As he rubbed against his smarting buttocks, he thought that he had heard raspy, gruff voices teeming in through his bedroom window. Jaye peeked above his covers, but nothing could have prepared him for the sight that he was about to witness.

There was a man outside of his seventh story, bedroom window. NO! It wasn't just a man, but it was an entire ship with sails and riggings and cannons and an anchor! Jaye pressed himself as hard as he could against the wall farthest away from where they stood. He tried to call for Toby and Alexia - well, he tried to call for 'mom' and 'dad' - but he was mortified beyond the capacity to form speech from his vocal chords. As the air fell silently from his pouting lips, a large silver hook gripped the broken pane from his picture window, and pried it open with a resounding crack as the lock popped from its hinge. Jason covered his mouth in shock, and tried to blend in with his toy box and his toys over in the darkened corner.

All was bleak. The intruder and his accomplices of blackened silhouettes began to rush into Jaye's open window. It was an invasion! Jaye heard more than one set of footsteps plod across his floor and scour every inch of his bedroom. He could tell from the reflection of the candle-bright nightlight that all the figures were armed with swords and pistols. Also in the twinkling, little light, Jaye noticed the shine of his amulet, which he had dropped only moments before. When he had realized that it was exposed in plain view of the marauders, he felt a wave of panic spread over him. Jason was afraid that the thieves - or whatever they were - might see it and steal it from him even before he had a chance to know more about it, and its origins.

Bravely and slowly, Jaye dropped down like a snake unto the ground and slid across the floor as silently as he could. The invaders trampled about noisily, which made Jason wonder why Alexia and Toby had not heard the ruckus, nor tried to intervene. Maybe they were dialing the police right now! The obscured bandits all reeked of tobacco, foul body odor, and bourbon as they hurled swears toward one another, while their leader –the authorative voice - who smelled of cologne, bourbon, and fine Cuban cigars commanded, "Spread out, you dogs! Cover more ground! Remember! The boy must be brought to me alive and unharmed."

Jaye gasped and then covered his mouth for fear that he had been heard. At this point, he had hoped that the prowlers had merely encroached upon the wrong address and were simply looking for some other 'boy.' Suddenly, Jason Williams' attentions were turned as he felt the warm metal at his fingertips just below his tiny twin-sized bed. He paused his retreat in order to momentarily slide his long, slender fingers up the side of the golden amulet, leaving himself exposed and vulnerable to the armed intruders. It was a near fatal error on his behalf. Swiftly, Jaye was hoisted back to his feet by the tuft of his soft, golden hair.

"CAPT'N!" A burly voice shouted, "I found 'em! I got the boy!"

"Let me go, you creep!" Jaye shouted with the amulet's cord twisted uncomfortably around his forefinger and wrist. "Help! Mom! Dad!"

"Bring him here," The leader's civilized voice crooned. Jaye was shoved headlong into the crushed-velvet coat of a lean, tall man. He couldn't see anything, but suddenly felt something cold and metallic lift up his chin. A match was struck and a candle was lit near Jason's eyes, when he saw the face of his captor smiling deviously next to his. The man who peered deeply into Jaye's face was fair, but slightly tanned with a mane of long, luscious, raven cascades of curls that draped meticulously over his shoulders and fell down his back all-the-way to his waist. The man also had a well-groomed, thin mustache, and a goatee-like beard. And if all of that was not noticed by the boy, then he could not have ignored the piercing blue eyes, that were as blue as forget-me-nots, nor the shimmering, silver hook that took the place of a right hand.

"It can't be," stammered Jaye, as he was turned about quickly and shoved out of the window and onto a floating ship sailing high into the stormy, midnight skies. Jason Williams watched as the high-rise condo – where he had lived, New York City, and Central Park faded out of sight, far below, in a matter of seconds. The stars seemed to grow larger and larger as the ship rose higher and higher above the clouds. When the ship had finally cleared the Earth far below, the hook-handed captain turned towards his crew and shouted, "Gentlemen, Ladies, and, of course, every one of you in-between… We have discovered a new course and charted, this night, a course of fresh seas in order to claim our prize. Now then, without much more delay, may I present to you… the son of the Goblin King!"

Deafening cheers arose from every deck of the ship, as Jaye squinted, looking rather taken aback. He had never heard of a – a -

"Excuse me," the meek child tugged at the hooked-man's lacey sleeve, and raised his highly arched eyebrows, trying to be heard, but still hoping to blend in with the night so that he might not be completely noticed by the ruffians, "Um… excuse me… eh-hem."

The Captain raised his hand and his hook, in order to halt the jeers and shouts, while he shouted, "SILENCE!" When the crew obediently quieted in a matter of a moments, the man turned back towards Jaye, bowed, and said in a handsome voice that sounded as smooth as water gliding down a slippery cliffside, "Speak, Boy. We are all gregariously interested in what you would inquire of us."

After a few of the crew grunted in approval, while others moaned in confusion over their captain's rather large vocabulary, Williams licked his relatively dry lips and asked, "I'm sorry, but what's a 'Goblet' King?" He quickly broke eye contact with the Captain when those forget-me-not-colored eyes became too intense for him to gaze upon any longer. The man stepped back and raised his hook parallel with his shoulder, while he rolled his eyes towards his crew members in a 'what-an-ignorant-child' gesture. The pirate crew all followed suit and laughed along with their captain in a similar gesture back towards him. Jaye set his jaw as his stubborn pride had gotten the better of him. He disliked being mocked. Jaye balled his fists and swung at the captain, but the man merely stepped back, while the boy lost balance, falling face first unto the wooden deck. Jason had the wind knocked out of him and split his lip open on the splintery, weather-worn planks beneath him. The captain roared in laughter again, but this time hoisted his prisoner nonchalantly back to his feet with his menacing, right-hand-prosthetic. Jaye writhed in agony, as the sharp, silver hook had its point wretched around his left wrist, where the amulet was also tangled along with his fingers, and now the blue-stripped pajama nightshirt buttons on Jaye's sleeve-cuffs. Williams couldn't conceal the alluring artifact from the ship's crew, nor her captain any longer.

"Now, that is exactly what we were seeking," The captain mumbled to himself hungrily as his eyes shimmered at the sight of the amulet and tore it unapologetically from Jaye's sleeve.


	4. A Fabled Life

**"The Key to The Kingdom"**

(c) Rebekah L. Copeland, Aiijuin Graphics 2011

* Disclaimer * Based on "Labyrinth" by The Jim Henson Company (c) 1986

"Peter Pan" related characters were written respectively by J. M. Barrie

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><p><strong>Chapter Four: A Fabled Life<strong>

Jaye didn't know what to do. His head was in a daze as he was tossed from one ugly, grimy crewmember to the next upon the ship's deck. The hooked captain had his father's amulet, and there didn't seem to be any way of getting it back at this point. Jason's lip had finally stopped bleeding, but the pain was still just as prominent. Normally, whenever Jaye had experienced extreme emotions such as overwhelming anger, or fear, 'something' usually happened that justified his situation. Unfortunately, nothing was helping him at this moment. He had been certain that good luck would swing back in his direction as it always had, but then – of course – these weren't the normal circumstances that he had typically encountered.

_How many children could actually say that they had been kidnapped from their bedroom window by a pirate ship in the middle of the night?_

Jaye was pretty certain that he was dreaming, and would very soon awaken within his bed, or in the middle of math class with nothing more than haunting memories vanishing of this horrific turn of events. He closed his eyes and wished that the pirates would go away. He crossed his fingers behind his back as best as he could with his hands tied tightly at the wrists. The pirate captain with the hook, or Captain James Hook – J.A.S. Hook by his parchment signatures - had ordered Jaye be bound and gagged. Since Jason was nearly positive that Captain Hook and his sky-faring, sea vessel – the Jolly Roger - had been nothing more than fictitious literature that the school librarian used to read to him in school, he was trying to pretend that he was not as frightened as he actually was.

The first mate, a short, old, fat man named Mr. Smee, was bellowing orders to have Jaye hoisted up onto the plank for immediate disposal as soon as the first light from Neverland had risen upon the horizons beyond the barrenness of space. Jason noticed that the Jolly Roger was careening towards several stars that shone brighter than the others. As the boy had suspected, the vessel veered towards the second star to the right. Their next destination was straight on to morning in a place where time did not exist to his knowledge. At this Jaye recalled that he was doomed to be tossed into the mermaid and crocodile infested waters in a short amount of time.

He had been terrified enough at the thought of being submerged into any body of water which stood above his head, mainly, because he had never actually learned how to swim. After all, he lived in major urban area and had no need to take swimming lessons, when it was more important to learn how to hail a cab. Rightfully one could argue that Manhattan was an island and to NOT know how to swim was a downright 'fail,' but nobody seriously considered trying to take a dip in its filthy, polluted waters anyway. Toby Williams had once joked that the last person who had tried to swim around the channels of New York City, disintegrated in the chemicals that were pumped from the sewage lines out into the bay.

Jaye thoughts stuck with his 'Uncle' Toby as he was breathing a silent prayer that someone would find him, save him, and take him away from this awful place. All of a sudden, he felt a small item plunk down unto the back of his head. Silently, he looked up to find another boy about his own age – maybe older - who looked nearly identical to himself, gazing down from one of the ship's massive masts, while tossing a handful of round walnuts at Jaye's head. Jason narrowed his eyes in confusion, while the fair –but sun-kissed, mischievous-looking, mystery boy pressed a finger upon his own lips, insinuating that Jaye should keep silent. Despite the fact that Jaye was gagged, he nodded towards the boy and turned his attention back to the main deck, where he was tethered and left teetering cautiously on a thin wooden plank above outer space. Williams figured that he knew who the boy might be, but didn't jump to conclusions too quickly. After all, he had never heard the part of J. M. Barrie's classic tale which stated that Captain Hook had flown his ship into modern metropolitan areas of the United States and kidnapped children from their condos in the middle of the night. If so, then the librarian had skipped that chapter.

Jason peered up curiously again at the masts, but his doppelganger had disappeared. _Of course, this dream won't cooperate with me like I want it to,_ thought Jaye. The star before the Jolly Roger had grown gigantic in size until it finally revealed a mist of forest-green mountains jutting high above a turquoise sea. The whole land seemed a vast island with perfect violet skies topped with rainbows high above. A perfect sun rose far off in the East, which meant only one thing for Jaye.

As if on cue, Jason Williams felt the dangerous, steel blade dig into the small of his back. He jumped forward in shock. As he did so, he nearly lost his balance off of the plank. Smee's voice shouted, "Move 'er on up, Lad. Right to the end, now. There you go. Good boy."

Williams didn't have time to protest. As the sword poked him once again, he felt a boot stomp at the base of the ship's plank, and off he tumbled head-first. However, as he began to fall, the boy he had seen moments before caught him by the tied hands, leaving Jaye dangling in the cotton clouds of fluff, high above Neverland. The boy immediately took out a dagger and cut Jaye's bonds. Jason looked up and mumbled, "Mmmm!" With his mouth gagged, he really couldn't say anything coherent. The boy winked and smirked. Slowly Jaye's look-alike lifted Williams into the networks of masts and yellowed, billowing sails high above the decks of the Jolly Roger. The boy paused for a moment in thought and then dropped Jason into the crow's nest, which predictably knocked a lookout pirate from his post. A man with backwards hands named Noodler crashed down onto the poop deck below, and all of the pirates looked up in wonder.

"IT'S PETER PAN! CAPT'N HOOK! CAPT'N HOOK!" Smee shouted at the top of his lungs.

"All hands on deck! Battle stations! Every man to his post!" Orders were resonated from one end of the ship to the other. As expected, Captain Hook flew out of his chambers and straightened his black, ornate hat with its large, albino peacock feather upon his head. He was wearing the golden amulet around his neck that he had confiscated from Jaye.

Hook sneered upwards at the sight of Peter Pan, and withdrew his sword from its scabbard with his left hand. Pan was also armed with a short golden sword, that was nearly the color of Jason's amulet. Hook shoved his blade sideways into his mouth and began to climb quickly up the rigging towards Peter. As soon as he reached the top, both nemeses placed their weapons at the ready for combat. Jaye had forgotten his danger for one minute, and laughed as Pan began to crow indignantly like a rooster. If Jaye had recalled the story of Peter Pan correctly, then the boy-who-never-grew-up was celebrating a most triumphant victory even before the battle had begun.

Jaye knelt low, not really interested having his head lopped off by the captain. It began with Hook on the aggressive and Peter on the defensive. Hook parried his sword, while Pan parlayed and blocked. The two fought furiously back and forth, while balancing on the top of the narrow masthead beneath their feet like two trapeze artists. Hook would swing, and Pan would duck. Pan would laugh and Hook would lunge forward with all of his might and a mighty roar. As Peter Pan dove off of the masthead and began to soar back into the air with the assistance of magic fairy dust, he spun behind Captain Hook and then mimicked the captain's voice. "I'm old, and ugly… Arr!"

Jaye felt that Peter would have made a pretty good comedian with his dead-on impressions of the hooked captain, however Jaye wasn't too sure that Peter's outfit ensemble of leaves, torn cloths, and his acorn necklace would sit too well with the comedian club scene in Upper Manhattan.

Finally, Peter grew bored with his battle against Hook, and just as the crew below had lit the cannons, Peter grabbed Jaye by the hand and whisked him down off of the ship to the island far below.

"Wait," Jaye tried to say as he reached out towards his stolen amulet around Hook's neck, but he was yanked too hard to say his words coherently. Down, down, down, the two boys flew, until they were greeted by a wild pack of rag-tag boys standing far below inside a thicket of Autumn-hued Maple trees. Also joining them was a tiny, green fairy with bright sapphire-colored eyes, and lemon-blonde hair twisted tightly into an upsweep. She had said nothing, but looked disapprovingly at Jaye as soon as Peter Pan had landed. Her arms were crossed while she sat on a branch just slightly overhead of the boys, and she tried to gain Peter's attention with all of her might. Something about the scowl on the fairy's face made Jason nervous. It seemed as if he had done something wrong to her, but wasn't sure exactly what.

Well, whatever it was, Jaye suddenly returned his mind back to the amulet and why Captain Hook would have any interest in it whatsoever. _Didn't pirates have their own gold? Did they really need his father's amulet?_ As much as Jason had feared Hook, he desperately wanted to return back to the Jolly Roger and pump the pirate captain for any information regarding his real father.

Everything was put on hold while Peter recapped his adventures back to the his band of followers, the Lost Boys. Jaye looked up into the air and wondered what Toby and Alexia would do when they found out that he was missing from his bedroom with his window smashed out.


	5. Mutiny

**"The Key to The Kingdom"**

_(c) Rebekah L. Copeland, Aiijuin Graphics 2011 _

* Disclaimer * Based on "Labyrinth" by The Jim Henson Company (c) 1986

"Peter Pan" related characters were written respectively by J. M. Barrie

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Five: Mutiny<strong>

Tinkerbell had never been a particularly pleasant fairy, from what Jaye had recalled in the tales written about her. She muttered nasty little curses under her breath at him while Peter and the Lost Boys led Jaye back to Peter's hideout under Hangman's Tree. Most of the words that she had said were things that a boy his age probably shouldn't have heard. He didn't know what he had done to annoy her to such an extent, but he knew was that his ears were growing weary. Jason wondered why the Lost Boys, nor Peter seemed to care one way or the other about her ramblings.

Each step Jaye took became tougher and tougher because he was so tired from the lack of sleep. He was still wondering when this dream would end, and why he would feel so tired inside of a dream. _Well, dreams were very odd sometimes _, he thought. Meanwhile, Peter walked slightly ahead of everyone and talked to Jaye in an excited voice, "Over there," he pointed with a mischievously disarming grin, "is where the Indians live, and Mermaid Cove lies in the opposite direction."

For a moment there was a much needed silence, but then a chubby boy - also around Jaye's age - who went by the name of Tootles asked, "Peter? Why do you and this new boy look alike then?"

Peter spun around and placed his face in Tootles' face as he said manically, "I've been thinking about that. I figure that me and him are like First Twin and Second Twin." Two boys who looked identical to one another clad from head to toe in rabbit furs and head bands nodded in unison. Another boy who was dressed in a frumpled, plaid, business suit, seemed the most cultured of the children, and hailed by the name of Slightly replied, "What should we call this boy, Peter?"

Jaye raised his hand and said shyly, "Actually my parents – or rather the people I thought were my parents until today – named me Jason…"

"Jack!" Peter shouted with an 'aha!' "I shall call him Jack! Like the boy that Wendy had spoke about. The one who climbed the beanstalk and defeated a great giant. I liked him, but not as much as the stories about me. We can't have two of me, though. That would be weird."

"Actually," Jaye continued after being ignored, "I'm called 'Jaye." But it didn't seem to matter much to any of the boys, including Peter, who seemed more interested in Jaye's brilliant new name. Jason looked helpless and turned back towards the green fairy who stuck her tongue out at him and called him another foul name. "That's it! I'm going back to that pirate ship to get my father's amulet and then I'm going home."

Every child froze in place, as looks of shock and horror spread across their faces. "You wanna go back to the pirates?" a very small child with wild, ginger-colored hair asked. Peter's happy mood immediately changed into a fierce, furious-faced one that forced his hand to turn it's golden blade on Jaye's throat.

"_Are you a pirate!_" Peter spat. Jaye shook his head, and answered, "N-no!" Peter didn't withdraw the blade for a moment, as Jaye stammered, "I swear, I'm not! I just want to get my father's amulet back!"

Peter lowered the sword slowly, as the silenced Lost Boys began to sigh breaths of relief. Tinkerbell seemed a bit disappointed that Peter had not dispatched Jaye. Finally, Jaye asked angrily, "Would you please tell your fairy to stop calling me names?"

Peter had changed moods again and laughed, "Tink's never been one for manners. It seems that she hates you more than she ever hated Wendy." Tinkerbell raced in front of Peter and became very animated and expressionistic. Multi-colored, glittery fairy dust sprayed out in all directions as she swished her hands and flailed her arms this way and that. A twinkling sound jingled from her body like a bell each time that she moved, while Peter translated, "Tink says that you're an enemy of the fairies. Your father has her kind killed on the outer walls of his lands. She wants me to throw you to the mermaids and let them drown you in the sea."

"I know," Jaye pursed his lips and crossed his arms stubbornly, "I heard what she said." He wasn't sure which end was up anymore, but it seemed certain that everybody – except him – knew all about his real father. Every time that he had tried to ask about his dad, it seemed he was laughed at, or simply interrupted.

Tootles placed an empathetic hand on Jaye's shoulder and said softly, "Maybe Peter can be your father, and then maybe Tink won't hate you anymore." Jason narrowed his eyes and asked, "How can a boy my own age be my father?"

"It's only pretend anyway," Peter shrugged and answered. "You're father sounds like a dangerous man. I should like to fight him if I had a chance. It would probably be tons of fun, but first we should go back to Hook's ship and get your father's item that he stole. What is an 'amulet' anyway?"

"I don't really know," Jaye replied, "That's what my dad – I mean – my Uncle Toby called it. He said it was important and maybe magic. Hook is wearing it around his neck right now, so I'm not sure how we're going to take it from him."

"I'm not sure either, but it will be a grand adventure trying to get it back, right?" Peter nodded enthusiastically. Being ever the stoic, Jaye frowned, "We might get killed. We could lose our arms and legs, or worse yet, even our eyes. That would suck. I won't be able to play my Wii anymore if that happens."

Peter didn't seem to hear anything that Jaye had said to him, except one word. "What's a 'weee?'" Before Jason could reply, a loud, shrill squawk of a parrot could be heard across the inner island that had come from the distant sea. "Hook," Peter whispered, "Something's happened. I wonder."

Quickly, all of the Lost Boys, Pan, and Tinkerbell scrambled through the forest until they had reached the rocks of Mermaid Cove. Out in the distance, the Jolly Roger had returned to its sea port and floated calmly upon the waters. Peter took out a brass, telescopic, looking glass that was tucked into a belt across his back and zoomed in towards the ship's deck. Unlike the Jolly Roger, the crew had been anything but calm. They darted frantically to and fro without any reason. Several of the men fell off of the plank, while others began to pillage their own ship as they lowered themselves into the row boats with their pockets lined with heavy jewels and gold bullions. "Mutiny," Peter whispered at his band of boys as he turned towards Jaye and finished, "I think that magic in your father's amulet has begun to work against Hook."

Before any other words could be exchanged between the boys, several ghastly, but unbelievably beautiful women with pale, webbed hands emerged from out of the water near the rock jetty that faced the Jolly Roger. They started to speak in clicks and other unrecognizable sounds that Jaye could not understand. Peter Pan leaned in close and returned the clicking sounds back to them. Jaye was entranced by the eyes of the mermaids and leaned closer to the edge of the water in order to get a better view. Twin One and Twin Two immediately grasped Jaye by each of his elbows and dragged him backwards as fast as they could. Twin One said, "They will lure you," while Twin Two finished, "And drown you into the sea."

After a few minutes, the mermaids retreated back into the water and Peter stood up. He explained to Jason and the Lost Boys, "Hook was trying to use your father's amulet to turn time against me. He wanted to make me a man like him, but the magic backfired and turned him into a child instead. As soon as Captain Hook turned into a kid, his crew stopped listening to him. Being scared, he jumped from the ship, was chased by the crocodile until he swam to shore, and finally ran into the forest. Tigerlily captured him, and now the Indians are holding him at their camp.

"Then what was that horrid squawking sound?" Jaye asked.

Peter turned towards Jaye, grinned widely, and answered, "Mr. Smee finished Hook's shaggy, peg-legged parrot. I guess he's just had enough of that pesky bird ordering him around." With those words, Tinkerbell clapped her hands and flapped her iridescent wings blissfully. It was apparent to all of the Lost Boys and Peter that she had never been fond of that bird after it had tried to make her a meal long ago. "C'mon," Peter waived his hands, "Let's go visit the Chief and see the Hook-child! This ought to be fun!"

Although Jaye's thoughts had been on the amulet the entire time, he wouldn't miss the opportunity to see a well-placed, backfired hex. He had only seen things like magic on the television shows, and of course, there were those weird things that happened to him, which he could never explain. After all, Mr. Bramble had been standing inside of math class yelling at Jaye the day before for drawing mazes inside of his math book, and then the next minute he was hanging outside of his classroom window three stories above the concrete sidewalk. Since the school had central air, and the windows had not been relatively designed to open, Mr. Bramble was hanging out of a closed glass and stone building with no way back in. The fire company had to retrieve him with a ladder truck, while the teachers from the other rooms panicked on the inner side of the school yelling for help until Mr. Bramble's rescue.

After another long foot journey, Jaye and the Lost Boys had reached the village of Princess Tigerlily and her father, Big Chief. They were dancing wild around a bon fire. Next to the fire was a boy tied to a totem pole with raven-hair clad in an oversized, scarlet-colored pirate garb. Jason glanced closer at the boy. His right hand was a hook. Tears were streaming down the boy's face, and Jaye immediately knew that this child had been the once terrifying Captain James Hook.


	6. Queries

**"The Key to The Kingdom"**

(c) Rebekah L. Copeland, Aiijuin Graphics 2011

* Disclaimer * Based on "Labyrinth" by The Jim Henson Company (c) 1986

"Peter Pan" related characters were written respectively by J. M. Barrie

_* Also several foreshadowings of the movie "Hook," directed by Steven Spielberg, have been hinting throughout this chapter. It was intentional. All those who have seen the references… kudos to you!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Six: Queries<strong>

"This is all your fault!" A ten year-old Captain Hook cried in a very youthful voice towards Jaye. "You tricked me into cursing myself! You made this all happen!"

Every eye within the village fell upon the boy to whom Hook was screaming. The dancing, music, and drums all stopped. The Natives were confused by the appearance of two Peter Pans, although only one was dressed in blue-stripped pajamas. Princess Tigerlily smoothed her mahogany-colored hands down her long, braided jet-black hair, and walked towards Jaye and Peter. She first observed the boy-who-never-grew-up, gazing closely at every minute detail upon his face and within his wild, golden blond hair. Then, the pre-teen, native princess walked over towards Jaye with her long slender legs and dust-covered, bare feet. Her face was painted brightly in patterns of primary red, and deep, dark blue. She brushed back Jaye's golden strands of choppy, uneven hair from his pink, pointed ears, and began to explore every angle of his head with her long willowy fingers.

Williams became intoxicated by the smell of the musk dabbed upon her neck, and he whispered in a nearly euphoric tone, "Just like Maggie."

A tall, slim boy with dirty blonde hair named Nibbs asked, "Is Maggie your mother?" Jaye caught himself and blushed, "Maggie Johnson? No, not at all. It's just some girl in my class who has eyes the color of a turquoise ocean, and hair as smooth and rich as a chocolate bar."

A couple of eyebrows raised on the Lost Boys, as Peter asked curiously, "Does she tell stories?" Jaye looked at Peter and whispered gently, "No, but she did help me pick up my books one day, when I dropped them in the hall, and she sings in the choir. Her voice is like an angel."

"Maggie," Peter repeated the girl's name as Tigerlily tapped him lightly on the shoulder and spoke in a different language. Peter replied back in the same language, and then he turned back towards Jaye and translated, as he had earlier with the mermaids, "Tigerlily says that you and I aren't like Twin One or Twin Two. She says that you have two different colored eyes, while both of mine are blue. Your ears are a different shape than mine are, and she says that you're magic is also very different from my own."

Again the native princess spoke to Peter, and he turned towards Jaye again and finished, "She says that you hold the key to something."

"The key to what?" Williams asked himself with a shrug, and then he remembered, "Oh! Ask Tigerlily if she found my amulet on Captain Hook, please!"

Peter nodded and spoke in the princess' native tongue again. She glanced behind her for a minute and waived her father, Big Chief, over towards the pale boys. Tigerlily's father seemed nearly seven feet tall, and he was broad and muscular with scars marked across his face and chest. It was clear to Jaye that Big Chief had seen many great battles in his life, and was a powerful, brave warrior. The chief's long, braided black hair blew in the mellow winds behind his massive crown of feathers, as he held out his huge hand with Jaye's stolen amulet dangling from it's long black cord. Jaye wasn't sure of foreign protocol, but he bowed at the waist, and Big Chief raised his left palm in reply. After Jaye straightened up again, Big Chief placed the black cord with the amulet around the boy's neck, and said some foreign words.

Peter turned back towards Jaye and gazed at him sternly. Jaye said to Big Chief, "Thank you." But Peter said, "Big Chief wants you to be careful of that thing. He's says it feels dangerous."

Williams looked at Pan and asked, "Could you ask Big Chief if he knows who it belongs to?" Peter narrowed his eyes and replied to Jaye, "I thought you said that it belonged to your father."

Jaye corrected himself, "Well, it does, but I'm not really sure who my father is." Peter nodded and asked Big Chief Jaye's question. Big Chief shrugged and twisted toward his daughter. She also shook her head, but looked back at the captured child Hook and pointed. Jaye smacked his head, "Of course! How could I have forgotten?"

He walked over to Hook, who was still imprisoned with ropes upon the totem pole, and asked forcefully, "Hey, you! You mentioned that I was the son of someone earlier. Who was it? That name that you said – a 'something' king?

James Hook studied Jaye for one minute and then replied with an arrogant laugh, "You fool! You don't even know who your daddy is? The son of the great Goblin King, completely ignorant to his own royal blood! Oh! But wait… If you don't know, then maybe he doesn't care for you, and has abandoned you here with all of the other orphans on this misfit island."

At the tone of Hook's voice and his words, something boiled inside Jaye's blood that made him turn bright red with fury. _It was Hook who had taken him to Neverland, after all – it's not like he had run away here, or had fallen out of his prams like all of the Lost Boys!_ And, Although he had never met his real father – the Goblin King – he didn't want to hear such insults before he had even discovered why he was left to be fostered by his aunt and uncle for the last nine or ten years of his life. However, Jaye's fury was suppressed by Peter's rebuttal. Pan had drawn his sword and threatened Hook with it as he spat, "You will tell Jack about his father, if he asks it…"

"Jaye," Jason corrected, now turning some of his anger at Peter for not calling him by his real name. As usual, Peter ignored it.

"Or what," Hook sneered at Peter, "You'll kill me? Ha! You do that and the boy learns nothing about his father, and you will lose the pursuit of our battle forever, Pan!"

Pan didn't waiver or sway to Hook's ultimatum. He countered with a surprising reaction, "Then so be it. I'll cut you down, and help the boy myself. I'm sure there are more pirate captains out there, far more notorious than you'll ever be. They might even be far more adventurous as well. You're getting kind of predictable and boring, you know."

Peter dug the blade slightly into Hook's throat, as the raven-haired boy began to perspire profusely. After James could take no more pain, and saw that Peter wasn't going to draw back, he gasped, "All right! All right! The boy's father is the Goblin King! There! I've said it! Now, cut me loose!"

Jaye squinted, "But you already said that. I want to know more."

Hook shrugged, "There really isn't anymore I can tell you! I only know that tiny tidbit and have heard of rumors regarding the amulet which belongs to him. It's said that he controls time with it. I swear that's all I've heard!"

"But doesn't he have a name, or something? So, I can look him up in the phone book, or on the internet?"

Hook blinked sarcastically at Jaye and replied, "Do I look like a scientist, or a historian? All I've just told you, is all that I know! I only wanted to take your amulet, and turn it against Pan. I threatened some fairies to make my ship fly, plotted a course to your last known coordinates – _which, by the way, was very foolish of your Goblin King father to leave you quite so exposed in that vulnerable place_ – and I took you. Simple navigation work! 'Tis all!"

"And what if he didn't have the amulet, Hook?" Peter asked with his eyebrows raised.

Hook shot Pan a glance and curled his upper lip, "Then, I would have used the Goblin King's son to blackmail the Goblin King to me and demand that his amulet be handed over in exchange for the safety of his brat." Upon his last words, Captain Hook turned his face away and brooded solemnly to himself. Jaye sensed that, although an extortionist and an otherwise horrid man, Captain Hook had most likely told the truth – The captain simply didn't know much more than the basics about Jaye's father and, judging from Hook's current predicament, probably even less about the power of the amulet.

Jaye turned back towards Peter and Tigerlily, and asked, "So does anyone know who the Goblin King is, and where I can find him?"


	7. Oh, Fantastic!

**"The Key to The Kingdom"**

_(c) Rebekah L. Copeland, Aiijuin Graphics 2011_

Disclaimer * Based on "Labyrinth" by The Jim Henson Company (c) 1986

"Peter Pan" and characters were written respectively by J. M. Barrie

"The Neverending Story" aka "_Die unendliche Geschichte" _and all of its characters were written respectively by Michael Ende.

_WRITER'S NOTE: _Fantastica_ is the English literary translation of Michael Ende's setting where "The Neverending Story" takes place, which is known by _Fantasia_ in the 1984 movie-version of the book. My version of the story is __**NOT **__based on the movie, but on the novel by Ende, therefore – I will be calling it Fantastica. Thank you!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Seven: Oh, Fantastic!<strong>

Nobody knew who the Goblin King was, nor where to find him, except – perhaps – Tinkerbell. Unfortunately, she downright refused to help Jason find his father. No matter how much Peter had threatened her, she had buttoned her lips and became as still as a statue. It seemed getting anything more from her would be futile. Worse yet, Jaye's strength was beginning to waiver. Big Chief and his people did what they could to aide Jaye. They served him food, and provided a soft place for him to rest his head, but his urgency to seek his father was too strong for him to find inner peace.

After everybody had finished eating and the Lost Boys had fallen asleep along with most of the tribe in the village, Tigerlily and Peter Pan remained alert speaking with each other about how they could find someone to help Jaye, or Jack, as Peter had called him. Peter had thrice left to speak with the mermaids, but they couldn't tell him anything about the Goblin King, nor anything about the amulet either. Several of the other fairies also gave a cold reception towards Peter once he mentioned the name of the Goblin King. Peter even considered flying back to Wendy's nursery in London and asking her if she might know, but sadly – he remembered that Wendy was an old lady now, while her daughter Jane was married with a daughter of her own, named Moira.

Peter finally raised his hands up in the air, and said outloud to no one, "Someone somewhere must know something about this Goblin King fellow. How can your father be a great king if nobody even knows where to find him or his kingdom, after all? That's seems pretty fishy to me, Jack."

"It's Jaye – oh, nevermind," Jason shrugged. "Maybe it's hidden. I suppose that's what makes it so magic."

Suddenly, as Tigerlily was tucking her little sister into her covers, she ran over to Peter and said something in an excited tone and with a great, big smile. Peter's eyes opened wide as he nodded back to the princess. "Tigerlily says that she just remembered someone who might be able to help you, but he's very far from here."

Jaye didn't hesitate for a second. He looked at the princess and pleaded, "Yes, please! Anything! Anyone! Anywhere! I'll do it!" Williams had almost completely forgotten about Toby and Alexia Williams back at home, and what might be happening in his absence. He didn't seem to care anymore. With the amulet hung around his neck, he was more focused on finding the answers than ever before. He didn't care anymore if this all were a dream at this point. Jaye simply had to solve the mystery behind his father and the amulet before he woke up again. _That is, of course, if you really are dreaming_, a voice in Jaye's head resounded again.

As Tigerlily relayed another message to Peter, Peter forwarded it to Jason. He began to explain, "There was a warrior boy from the Greenskin Tribe, whose home lay within the Grassy Ocean behind the Silver Mountains. His name was Atreyu. They say that he was once tasked with finding a cure for the illness of the Childlike Empress of Fantastica."

Jaye interrupted, "Are any of those places in Neverland?" Peter shook his head and answered, "No. They're not even close. In fact, I've never even heard of any of these places until now."

"Then, how can I reach this land, and will I ever find this warrior boy?" Jaye yelped in despair. Tigerlily had not, however, finished speaking with Peter. She approached Jaye and drew a picture on the ground of two snakes entwined in a twisting circle. One snake was devouring the tail of the other one, while the other snake was doing the same to the first snake. The princess continued to point towards the snakes on the ground and then up at the skies beyond Neverland.

Peter had a confused look on his brow, and he had to ask Tigerlily several questions twice just to clarify her answers. Finally, after the silence had fallen between the two once again, Pan replied to Jaye, "Tigerlily doesn't know how to find Atreyu, or where to seek his home, but she knows of a human child who does. He lives on your planet somewhere and has been to Fantastica before. Tigerlily thinks that this boy might even know more than Atreyu, but only Atreyu knows Fantastica like no other person, because he had once traveled every inch of it during his Quest– they say."

Jaye sighed, "What's the boy's name and can you take me to him, Peter? Please."

Although Peter didn't say what the boy's name was, he agreed to take Jaye to the child. Pan called Tinkerbell to his side. He was going to need some pixie power and pronto! After all, if Captain Hook could commandeer several fairies and travel with the Jolly Roger into the middle of New York City, then certainly Peter would be able to do the same. He HAD done it before through London long ago, but could hardly recall it all now. Although Hook had been swallowed whole by the crocodile that day, things in Neverland always had a way of resetting themselves through the course of absent time. It was only the Human Realm where Wendy Darling had lived, which changed and evolved into something new and where people were always being born and where they were also always dying each day.

Suddenly, at Peter's closing thought, Neverland clouded up, and began to rain. Tink sensed the change in Peter and immediately distracted him by flittering about and acting goofy. It worked. As Peter laughed, the skies overhead cleared, and the moon shone brightly overhead once more. Jaye remembered that Peter and his emotions had great sway over Neverland. Although he was only a boy, he was hardly to be underestimated. As Williams was about to ponder over his own _special magic powers_, a flock of faeries carried the Jolly Roger from its sea dock, and hovered over Big Chief's village. Peter and the Lost Boys - who Tinkerbell had woken up - helped Jaye board the ship. Tigerlily also helped to see her guest off.

After the ramp of the ship was lowered gently, Pan figured that it might be a good idea to force Captain Hook back unto his own ship in order to travel with Jaye on this adventure. Peter didn't much enjoy having Hook younger than himself, and he was sure that his arch nemesis also disliked being a child. He untied the pirate captain from the totem pole, and then ushered the boy up the ramp of the Jolly Roger. Peter never lowered his golden sword for a moment from Hook's back. As soon as they were all aboard the pirate ship, Peter and the Lost Boys tied Hook onto the main mast for Jaye's protection. Peter turned towards Jaye and said, "I'm going to let the fairies guide you to the human boy who knows the way into Fantastica. Tigerlily is coming with you and so is Hook. They will be your ship mates from here."

"But what about you?" Williams asked Peter. "Aren't you coming with me on this adventure? It should be fun."

Peter looked down and said softly, "No. I've got a promise to keep to Wendy. I'm going to visit her. Ha! Don't look so glum, Jack! Tigerlily has met Atreyu before long ago. She'll be able to lead you better than I could, at least I think she can... Anyway, she's strong. Oh! And when you do find your dad, could you ask him to undo the time spell on Captain Hook? He's far too unhappy being a boy, like me."

Jaye laughed and nodded as he saw a glimmer of hope reenter the child-captain's eyes. For a moment, Williams almost thought that he saw a red glint shine from Hook's irises, but it happened too quickly. He assumed that it was just his imagination, and he said nothing to Peter.

"Good bye, Jack."

"Good bye, Peter."

The two nearly-identical boys waved to each other for the last time, while the Lost Boys flailed their arms wildly on the ground as the Jolly Roger was carried off into the sky. Tinkerbell couldn't conceal her happiness at the first sign of Jaye's departure, but part of her seemed a little forlorn once he had gone, at least - after the ship had finally vanished out of sight.

The three ship mates, Jason Williams, Tigerlily, and Captain James Hook all looked ahead at the ship's bow as it careened silently across space. Once it had reached Earth, the ship made port in the sky above a dimly lit building with the sign, "Carl Conrad Coreander Old Books." Beneath it was another sign that had the bold letters saying, "**NOW UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT!**"

The faeries helped lower the ramp again, while Jaye disembarked followed by Tigerlily, who was escorting a bound, over-dressed kid. As Jaye approached the quiet building, he hoped that no one would see a floating pirate ship hovering only feet above a major city intersection. The sun was only rising over the horizon in the East, and the neighborhood was bathed in a pre-dawn, hazy light of pale violet. Jaye figured that he had better move quickly before anyone caught them and called the cops.

Slowly, Jaye mustered up the courage to ring the doorbell on the outside of the store. At first, there was no answer. Then, just as Jaye was about to turn around and leave, Tigerlily pushed the little black button again and again and again, until finally a raspy voice of a man replied slowly, "Yeah? Who's there?"

Jaye stepped in, as Tigerlily jumped back at bit. She wasn't used to voices that came from little speaker boxes outside of high-rise complexes. Even Hook seemed slightly disoriented. With Tigerlily's confusion, he had many opportunities to have escaped, but never bothered to try.

Jaye responded and asked, "Um. Hi."

"Look. Is this some kind of joke? It's four o'clock in the morning." The man's voice from the other side asked, this time with an angry tone laid into every syllable.

Jaye held the button again and said, "I'm sorry, but I was wondering if you could tell us anything about how to get to Fantastica and where we can find Atreyu? You see we are looking for him. We were told that someone here might know how to reach him – _I hope_."

Jaye had hardly finished his final sentence, when he heard chains being drawn back, and locks being turned with amazing speed. He figured the man he was speaking to had thought that he was some sort of loon loitering on his doorstep outside. In case of the worst, Jaye prepared to run the fastest route back to the Jolly Roger. Finally, after a few seconds, a short man with mousy brown hair and hickory-hazel eyes greeted Jaye with a warm enthusiasm as he flung open the chipped, old, white-washed door bearing Mr. Coreander's name on the glass pane.

"Are – are you Mr. Coreander?" Jaye asked. The man took a minute to size up the gangly, wild-haired boy with the blue-pin-striped pajamas, the native princess with her painted face, and then the pirate boy with his oversized, scarlet coat. After a minute of studying the three, the man finally answered, "No. Mr. Coreander died last year. I'm the new store owner. Bastian Balthazar Bux. Please do come in."

"Actually, we're in a bit of a hurry – sort of double-parked and all," Jaye nodded back at the Jolly Roger floating overhead, as Bastian's eyes grew even wider than they had been earlier at his first sight of the oddly-dressed children. "Maybe you can come with us, Sir."

Bastian nodded, and whispered, "I will, but I have to be back before breakfast. I need to get my kids ready for school, and my wife will wonder where I've gone if I don't return."

Jaye nodded, and moved his arm towards the ramp of the Jolly Roger, to show Bastian that he was welcome aboard. As soon as they were on deck and the ramp was raised again, the ship returned back into the clouds, where the stars were still taking solace from the sun's burning light.


	8. By Any Other Name

**"The Key to The Kingdom"**

_(c) Rebekah L. Copeland, Aiijuin Graphics 2011_

Disclaimer * Based on "Labyrinth" by The Jim Henson Company (c) 1986  
>"Peter Pan" and characters were written respectively by J. M. Barrie<br>"The Neverending Story" aka "_Die unendliche Geschichte" _and all of its characters were written respectively by Michael Ende.

_WRITER'S NOTE:_Fantastica_ is the English literary translation of Michael Ende's setting where "The Neverending Story" takes place, which is known by _Fantasia_ in the 1984 movie-version of the book. My version of the story is __**NOT **__based on the movie, but on the novel by Ende, therefore – I will be calling it Fantastica. Thank you!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Eight: By Any Other Name<strong>

Bastian Balthazar Bux looked a lot more common and bland than he actually was. When Jaye had first lain his eyes on the average-looking man, he wasn't really sure that he had found the person who could lead he and his crew to Atreyu and Fantastica. Jason Williams had been told that he was supposed to seek a boy, but Bastian was a man about ten years older than Toby Williams had been. Tigerlily was sitting on the deck of the Jolly Roger, as she wrapped a blanket around herself. The crisp air of the early spring morning made everyone shiver a bit.

Bastian didn't have much time until his wife or children would awaken at home, so he began to speak as soon as the ship was airborne. "Why are you looking for Atreyu and the doorway into Fantastica? I'm sorry, but I have to ask. And I also want to know how you heard about these places. It's just, The Neverending Story is one of those books that chooses its reader, not visa-versa. Do you have it with you?"

Hook was becoming agitated, "There was no bloody book! This savage here," he spat, as he pointed to Tigerlily, "She told us about your Atreyu and Fantastica!"

Bastian turned towards Tigerlily, and asked, "Did you read the Neverending Story?"

Tigerlily shook her head, but only to show Bastian that she didn't understand him, nor could she speak his language. Bastian nodded in comprehension, when Jaye began impatiently, "Please, Sir! Neither of us have much time - You and I - but we both have something in common."

"Oh?" Bastian raised his eyebrows in curiosity.

"We're both trying to get back to our families as quickly as possible!" Jaye quipped. "Peter Pan told me that Tigerlily told him that Atreyu had visited her some years ago in Neverland…"

"Wait, wait," Bux prodded Jason to slow down a bit, "Neverland? Peter Pan? Tigerlily? They're only storybook characters…" As Jaye began to protest, Bastian held out his hand to show that he wasn't finished speaking, "However, I do know that all storybook characters and their realms, like Neverland, belong to the Fantastican Empire. They are within Fantastica. They are all a part of the Neverending Story, you see. Moon Child, she controls all those lands everywhere."

"Who's Moon Child?" Jaye asked, and then continued before Bastian could reply, "According to Peter, Neverland and Fantastica are very, very far away from each other. In fact, he's never actually heard of Fantastica until today!"

Bastian pinched the bridge of his stubby nose in thought, while Captain Hook took advantage of the distraction and began to rub at the rope around his waist with his sharp, silver hook. Every now and then, he looked up to make sure that neither Jason, nor Tigerlily, nor Bastian had noticed. After a pause and a sigh, Bastian stood up, "I don't understand this. Everybody knows about the Childlike Empress of Fantastica… I mean, everybody from the stories. Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, Peter Pan. They're all stories from books, but all stories become real inside of the realm of Fantastica. Every story character that exists inside of Fantastica knows of the Childlike Empress… Ah, this doesn't make any sense. How can Peter and Neverland really, really exist outside of Fantastica?"

Jaye paled a bit, "You're not saying that my father is a character in a storybook too, are you?"

"Who is you're father?"

"I don't know his name, but he's the Goblin King, that's all that I know. This amulet that I'm wearing around my neck belongs to him. He gave it to my mother to give to me."

Bastian tilted his head slightly and asked, "I've never read about the Goblin King anywhere in any storybook, so it may be safe to say that you're father isn't a part of Fantastica, but if there is a book about him somewhere, then he might be a part of the Neverending Story and Fantastica."

The sun began to rise on the bottom of the Jolly Roger, and the faeries guiding the ship veered it farther to the East in order to keep it shrouded from the human eyes down below on the Earth. Bastian looked over the side, as Tigerlily began to hunt for some breakfast on Hook's ship. He protested at first, but couldn't stop her from entering into his private chambers. Bastian Balthazar Bux continued, "Is that why you want to find Atreyu and Fantastica? You're seeking your father?" Jaye nodded. Bastian touched the amulet of the Goblin King around Jason's neck and then said, "What is your name, Kiddo?"

Jason had only heard him called by that name once, not more than 24 hours ago by his Uncle Toby. He startled for a second, and then answered, "J-Jason Williams…"

Bastian raised his thick eyebrows, "Are you certain?"

"Well, everybody calls me 'Jaye' mostly, except my grandma and my teachers. Mrs. Hibbartstein, the potato – I mean, principal calls me 'Mr. Williams,' like I was a big man, or something."

"Mmm, Jaye, is it?" Bastian continued in a very cryptic tone of voice. He circled around Jason slowly and observed the boy. "Jaye, Jaye," Bastian repeated a couple more times, like he was weighing Jason's nickname out on his tongue. After a few more breaths, Bux spun about on his fluffy, black slippers, while his maroon bathrobe twisted outward from the gravity of the spin. Jaye looked at the man strangely. Finally, Bastian stood still, and said, "I know this may sound weird, Jaye, but I don't really think that's your real name. Not 'Jason,' not 'Jaye.'"

"Why would you say such a thing?" Jaye asked as he stiffened up offensively. "My father named me what I am! Why would you tell me that I'm not who I say that I am. Do you think that I'm lying?"

Jaye was about to start pounding on Bastian's side in fury, when Bastian placed his hand on Jason's shoulder in order to calm him down. "I don't think that you are lying, Jaye. I just think that you've never been told your real name. That's all. Call it a feeling."

"'_Call it a feeling…_'"Jaye whispered under his breath completely hunched over, as he looked like he had just had the wind knocked out of him. Even Hook stopped sawing at his bonds for a moment in order to watch the commotion. Jaye's Uncle Toby had said the same words to his Aunt Alexia regarding Jason's missing mother, Sarah. Bastian tried to comfort the boy, but Jaye sunk down to his knees. unable to think. Bux knelt down by Jaye's side and whispered, "Jaye. If your father isn't a story, then I don't think that hiring Atreyu to guide you through Fantastica will do you any good. No. But, I can tell you who may be able to help you."

Jaye bit into his lower lip and wrinkled up his chin slightly in frustration. He was beyond the point of asking anymore questions. Bastian sensed this and continued, "I'm going to help you to get to Moon Child, the Childlike Empress, but I cannot go with you to see her. You see, my part in The Neverending Story, and Fantastica has ended by my will long ago. If the Goblin King is a part of her realm, then she will know immediately and will tell you so. If he is not, then she will tell you that she has never heard of him, and she can help you find your way back out of Fantastica again. The Childlike Empress is the Golden-eyed Commander of Wishes, and there is nothing that she cannot do within her own realm, nor is there anything that she does not know."

Jaye finally looked up into Bastian's hazel eyes and asked sternly, "What do I have to do?"

"The Empress, like you Jaye, needs a new name," Bastian smiled wisely, and then said, "It's time for me to leave. Please bring the ship down now."

As if the faeries could read Bastian Balthazar Bux's mind, they had already started their descent towards the ground. It was too bright and busy in Bastian's home city for them to take the Jolly Roger directly back to his front door again. Bastian pointed to a rooftop near his home and store, where the ship could touch down safely and drop him. When the ship had reached that destination, slowly the ramp was lowered. Before exiting, Bastian ruffled Jaye's already wind-tousled hair before he waved goodbye to Tigerlily, Hook, and finally with whom he had felt most connected to - young Jason Williams. His eyes twinkled with hope towards Jaye. He had never actually met a child with real magic beyond the boundaries of Fantastica. Bastian was completely exhilarated and felt like he was ten-years old again, when he had ridden upon the backs of Falcor the Luck Dragon, and Grograman, the Many-Colored Death.


	9. Aurelia's Labyrinth

**"The Key to The Kingdom"**

_(c) Rebekah L. Copeland, Aiijuin Graphics 2011_

Disclaimer * Based on "Labyrinth" by The Jim Henson Company (c) 1986  
>"Peter Pan" and characters were written respectively by J. M. Barrie<br>"The Neverending Story" aka "_Die unendliche Geschichte" _and all of its characters were written respectively by Michael Ende.

_WRITER'S NOTE:_Fantastica_ is the English literary translation of Michael Ende's setting where "The Neverending Story" takes place, which is known by _Fantasia_ in the 1984 movie-version of the book. My version of the story is __**NOT **__based on the movie, but on the novel by Ende, therefore – I will be calling it Fantastica. _AURYN_ is always capitalized in the novel, and this is not a typo inside of my story. _AURYN_ is also presented in "The Neverending Story" like a person's name, and not an object – so it never has the word 'the' placed in front of it. Thank you!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Nine: Aurelia's Labyrinth<strong>

Jason Williams had not been able to eat the food that Tigerlily was offering him that dewy morning. The sky had become a haze of misty gray, and Hook had rivers of sweat pouring down his face from the humidity of the air. Jaye, on the other hand, was dry and cold. It could have been winter for all that he knew. The words of Bastian Balthazar Bux still resonated inside of his head, but Williams seemed indecisive as to what must be done next.

Hook had managed to cut through one of the ropes, only to discover that Tigerlily had triple-knotted his bonds, just in case he had tried to cut them. When he looked at her with his piercing blue eyes, she winked back at him roguishly as if to say, "Call me a 'savage,' will you?" He scowled and then turned his annoyances onto Jaye. "What are you waiting for, Boy? Are you too stupid to figure out what must be done? Did the short, stumpy man not explain himself clearly, or are you like the Indian girl here and speak in foreign tongues?"

The antagonizing was enough to force Jaye out of his slump. He didn't like Hook's arrogant words, nor did he care for Captain Hook from their first ill-fated meeting. Jason wasn't even sure why Peter had even decided that it might be a good idea to pair himself and the bloody pirate captain together. Even Tinkerbell probably would have made a more pleasant sailing companion at this point. However problematic Hook may have been, at least Jaye was able to communicate with him, unlike Tigerlily. He began to regret this day, and wanted to wish it away – along with himself. _Oh, if only he were back in his soft warm bed again!_

As if Tigerlily could read Jaye's mind, she reached out and squeezed his hand lovingly just like Alexia used to whenever he was feeling sad. Jaye tried to muster a smile at the native, but ended up with a half-cocked twist on his lips that made his jaws dimple a little. Even though he figured that Tigerlily wouldn't be able to answer him, he began to speak to her and completely ignore Captain Hook, "It's not that I'm stupid, or anything – I read all of the time and difficult, long books too - but a lot of what Bastian said is very difficult for me inside. I know who I am… I mean, I always thought I did. Now, I'm unsure. How can I not be me? And what am I supposed to name the Childlike Empress?"

Nothing could have prepared Jason for what happened next. Tigerlily looked into his mismatched eyes with her cool onyx eyes and said slowly, "You – must – follow your heart, Jaye."

Hook looked up in shock, as he and Jason exchanged glances. A light spread across Jaye's face as he replied, "You can speak my language?" Tigerlily nodded and held out her fingers in such a way to indicate that only a tiny bit. She paused for a minute and returned a somewhat broken answer with her strong, exotic accent, "I am not as .. being .. 'savage' as some want to – then believe. I heard your tongue-speak, long time far of Peter Pan. He talks and other boys talks like you. I hear and listen… muchness… but … but only … can I speak this here to you. A small bit. Only small to you."

Jaye nodded that he could understand her, but Hook rolled his eyes and returned to sawing at the second network of knotted ropes with great discretion. Tigerlily casually walked over towards Hook and slapped him firmly on the back of the head in order to make him stop. He sneered at her, as she lifted his angled chin with her strong, but feminine hands to meet her face. She shook her head with a smirk and said, "No, no, no, Captain. I watch you…much… close. I am no fool girl." With a kick onto the ground, Hook turned his head away in a tantrum as Tigerlily turned her attention back towards Jaye, "Son of Gob-lin King, you will name give to Moon Child new, yes?"

Jason tried to piece together the translation from her broken English as best as he could, and then he replied, "Oh! Yes! Yes, I will give a new name to Moon Child… Um. I have a name picked out, but isn't it a bit odd to be giving a name to someone who already has one? Just a question…"

Tigerlily laughed. Her voice was deeper than one a girl her age should have had – almost like a woman's, but it was alluring, and beautiful – _just like her,_ Jaye's mind subsequently finished for him. His thoughts of Maggie Johnson were beginning to vanish like the clouds in the sky beneath the Jolly Roger. Then, Jaye remembered that he was only 'nearly' ten, and he also had a job to do. He turned towards Tigerlily and said both loudly and firmly, "If the power has been given to me to enter Fantastica, then I rename the Childlike Empress, _Aurelia Skye!_ AURELIA, TAKE ME IN!"

Several things happened at once, as Jaye raised his hand high into the air and shouted the last words into the horizon. First, the Jolly Roger was upswept into a fierce wind which had sent it spiraling down towards the Earth at an alarming rate. Then, the dissipating clouds of gray grew brighter and brighter, and then turned an eerie amber color, almost like the inside of a hot fire of burning embers. Finally, Jaye's amulet began to glow a bright, furious white and pulled him high into the sky away from the deck, almost as if it were alive and trying to resist whatever was happening aboard the ship.

All of the children screamed at the turbulence. Tigerlily was flung from the Jolly Roger out into the atmosphere, while Hook was trapped on his own flailing vessel desperately trying to expedite his rope cutting with his prosthetic hand before he crashed and died. Jaye was sucked into the clouds as he lost sight of his crew, moments before he lost consciousness.

It seemed like a couple of seconds had passed for him, but when Jason had opened his eyes again, he was greeted by a huge set of ruby red eyes beaming back at him. All was warm, calm and quiet. Jaye blinked several times to clear the cobwebs from his mind. His body ached everywhere. Upon instinct, he reached for his amulet in order to make sure that he had not lost it again. Much to his happiness, it was still there. A voice both deep and steady said, "It's not AURYN, but it is both ancient and powerful, your amulet. Are you a human child from beyond the boundaries of Fantastica?"

Jason rubbed his aching head and tried to focus on whom was speaking to him. Covered in pink and white scales all over its body, the creature which addressed him was nothing like he had ever seen before, not even in the zoo. It looked like a cross between some sort of lion-headed beast with gigantic fangs, and a full-white mane of fur, and an oddly long dog, with a smooth body, four legs, and a long tail that made it sleek and aerodynamic. As it spoke in it's soothing, low, bell-like voice, Jaye felt rejoiced and relieved of all of the burdens that had weighed down upon him recently. Because Jason had not answered the creature right away, it spoke again, "Oh, but how rude of me to forget my manners and not introduce myself! I'm Falcor, the Luckdragon. And you are?"

Jaye mumbled to himself, "A 'Luckdragon?'" And then, he remembered himself and apologized to Falcor, "I mean… I'm sorry. My name is… My name is… Actually, oddly – I can't seem to recall it right now. Isn't that strange? I should know it. I remember my multiplication tables from math class and such, but I can't seem to remember who I am, nor where I'm from. Might you know who I am, then?

Falcor drew back his massive head, and roared in laughter, "Ha, ha, ha! Sorry, my boy, but I can't say that I can – But, I think if I fly you to the Childlike Empress and have you ask her, then she should be able to help you. She can help anyone. She knows everything and everyone here. Oh, but again – I must ask – are you a human child?"

Jaye shrugged. He wasn't sure if he was, or wasn't at the moment. He only knew that he was looking for something, but he couldn't recall what it was anymore. Carefree and happy, he replied, "I might be human, but I can't honestly say. My head's a bit fuzzy, you see. I'm very, very sorry, Falcor, but I just can't think that direction right now."

"It's okay, My Boy," The white Luckdragon answered warmly with a smile, "Here. Hop on my back, and I shall take you to the Ivory Tower – the Home of the Childlike Empress, Aurelia Skye." Jaye nodded without resistance and did as the Luckdragon suggested. The shimmering beast lifted off into the sky and flew off at speeds which made it resemble a flash of lightning shooting across the clear skies. Jason Williams held on tightly as his heart beat quickly with excitement. Over the rolling hillsides which looked akin to stormy green oceans, and the sharp, rocky Heliotrope Range which turned towards the sun nearly touching the skies, and the Silver Sea Grasslands where warriors hunted the big, purple buffaloes, the boy and the Luckdragon passed overhead in a blinding blur. Faster and faster Falcor glided through the air with his body moving like a fish treading water in the sea. He had no wings, like most other dragons, but then he was magnificent and beautiful, unlike most other dragons.

Jaye was enjoying himself, and although it felt like a mere matter of minutes had passed since he and Falcor had first embarked on their journey together, it had actually been hours and hours. Williams saw a great white tower standing off in the horizon. As they drew closer, Jaye looked down to see a series of twisted gardens and walls below that extended from horizon to horizon They were the most amazing structures that he had ever witnessed. _His heart was so joyful that it felt like it was going to burst!_ Falcor sensed the child's wonder and joy and replied, "It's the Labyrinth of the Childlike Empress. It is the largest in all of Fantastica. It surrounds the Ivory Tower in all directions: North, South, East, and West. The Labyrinth itself would take a normal Fantastican a lifetime to solve, and none have ever done so before, but to the one who could solve it, the Childlike Empress would give half her kingdom."

Jaye smiled widely and imagined that perhaps he would be the one to do so, if anyone could. He had always loved Labyrinths and mazes. He doodled them constantly in his math books, and his sketchpads, and had dozens of 'draw-your-way-through-the-mazes' coloring books at home. _Oh! If he could only remember where home was, then he would return there right now and solve another one, or maybe even build one!_ He patted Falcor on the head and asked, "Why a Labyrinth, Falcor? Why doesn't the Childlike Empress simply build a vast wall to keep intruders out?"

Falcor turned his massive lion-like head and answered, "A Labyrinth represents immeasurable wisdom. All of the greatest and wisest of we Fantasticans have Labyrinths, not simple barrier walls, or fences built around their castles, keeps, and palaces. No! Fences and gates are protections for cowards. The Labyrinth imbued lands contain some of the most ancient, highly respected, and powerful beings in all of the lands no matter where they may be. And the Childlike Empress doesn't try to keep intruders out with her Labyrinth, My Boy. She welcomes every Fantastican, no matter how big, or small, or beautiful, or ugly, or wealthy, or poor, or young, or old. All of the creatures within Fantastica are a part of her, and she to them. Even me."

The Luckdragon swooped upwards as the Labyrinth climbed higher and higher, until finally a mountain jutted from its center at a completely vertical angle. Jaye and Falcor were literally facing straight upwards, but the boy wasn't afraid. The exhilaration of the Labyrinth still haunted his mind. Finally, the light brushstroke-like clouds around the Ivory Tower melted into liquid gold, or at least they seemed to in Jaye's opinion. The Luckdragon flew closer to the Ivory Tower and Jaye could see that it was not simply a simple point, like a church steeple, but a network of city structures – balustrades, turrets, domes, roofs, and oriels that housed the court of the Childlike Empress. Jaye laughed loudly with the wind coursing through his wild, golden hair.

He almost felt like he could fly himself, but that was until Falcor had finally reached the top of the Ivory Tower, where a small magnolia-like flower made entirely of carved, fairy-white ivory stood sparkling in the center of a vast platform high into the blackness of outer space. Jaye suddenly became fearful, and wanted to turn away and return home – _if only he could remember where it was!_

Falcor stopped dead in front of the open white arch, just before the blooming, magnolia-like structure. The Luckdragon kneeled down for Jaye to disembark. The boy hesitated for a moment, and Falcor crooned, "Go on, My Boy. She's been expecting you."

Slowly, Jason Williams – who couldn't recall his own name – stumbled forward toward the blinding, iridescent light that shone from the archway. He swallowed with great difficulty and moved forward at a snail's pace wondering what would happen next.


	10. Enter the Prince

**"The Key to The Kingdom"**

_(c) Rebekah L. Copeland, Aiijuin Graphics 2011_

Disclaimer * Based on "Labyrinth" by The Jim Henson Company (c) 1986  
>"Peter Pan" and characters were written respectively by J. M. Barrie<br>"The Neverending Story" aka "_Die unendliche Geschichte" _and all of its characters were written respectively by Michael Ende.  
>"Wizard of Oz" and its characters were written by L. Frank Baum<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Ten: Enter the Prince<strong>

Jason thought that he had heard a whisper beckoning him forward, or it could have been the soft, rose-scented winds that swirled around the Magnolia-petal structure. His footsteps became heavier and heavier as he plodded forward. Finally, he reached the doorway into the Home of the Childlike Empress – which was actually the inside of the Magnolia flower. Then, without a warning, he saw them… Two round, golden eyes which reflected Jaye back to himself. They watched him enter into the archway without blinking. He stopped in horror.

Every part of his body shook, right down to his toenails. His heart failed him for courage. Then, he had heard a voice, sweeter than maple syrup, and more soothing than the ebbing ocean say to him, "I've been waiting for you, for a very long time. Please enter, and do not be afraid. I will not harm you."

Jaye took three more steps, and noticed that the person who was speaking to him was a little girl - not more than ten, or eleven years old. Her straight hair was three times as long as her body and was the color of the purest snow. Her skin was ivory-colored, like her home, and it was accented in shimmering glitter from head to toe. She wore a long, flowing, white gown that had a train of lace and ribbon which extended backwards behind her and wrapped about the massive room at least six, or seven times. A small pearl-like tiara graced her brow, and looked as intricate and as delicate as she. Her body was petite, and slender and she stood only as high as Jaye's shoulders.

Jaye almost forgot to breathe in her overpowering presence, until she touched him lightly on the arm and said to him, "I thank you for my new name and welcome you to Fantastica, Prince of the Two Realms with eyes that have seen the Twin Dominions of the Underground. Unfortunately, I cannot give you AURYN, because another mark of a great kingdom has lain claim over your soul - and, you are not fully human. The Neverending Story was only designed to draw in a human child, so I cannot grant you any wishes. I sense that you seek answers to many questions, but before I can reply to them, I must give you a name first."

Jason blinked at her words. In his trepidation, he had nearly forgotten that he didn't remember his name. He asked, maybe a little indignantly, "Alright then, what's my name?" He hadn't meant his request to come out so uncivilized, but his senses were overloaded from all of the consuming sights and sounds and smells around him.

Again her words trickled like a light, summer rain, "The one your father placed upon you at birth exactly ten years ago today, of course." Aurelia Skye smiled and the whole room brightened around her as she continued, "You are called, 'Jareth Goblin King, Jr., High Prince of the Underground, and sole heir to the Goblin Kingdom. I'm very sorry to say, however that as you had hoped, I cannot take you into your father's realm. You see, he does not fully stand within the Boundaries of Fantastica. He only partially exists here, and mostly exists elsewhere – into a place far beyond my reach."

She continued, "Long before time even existed, your father - the Goblin King - had written himself into the lands of Fantastica by writing his own story for the eyes of only your mother. He foresaw her coming before she had even been born. Since the story was only meant for her eyes alone, then only she – if she had ever entered through the realm of Fantastica – could have ever hoped to pass safely and completely unscathed into the Underground. Your mother did not, however enter the Goblin King's land through the forbidden entrance within Fantastica, but she entered in from the main entrance of Invitation shown to her by the Goblin King himself after his impatience to wait for her."

Jaye, or Jareth as he was now called, had to take a moment to let the story sink into his brain. The Childlike Empress' words were there, and yet they were not. They made perfect sense, and yet they did not. One minute she stood before him, and the next she did not. He closed his eyes already dizzy, tired, and weary of Fantastica and Aurelia Skye. Young Jareth took grip of the amulet around his neck and collapsed down to the ground.

The Golden-eyed Commander of Wishes leaned in close to him and whispered, "Your father is like me, Jareth, and so you will become like him one day. Neither of us can exist in the other's Realm completely, but like any great legend our rumor – _a whisper of what we are_ - can linger in the other's land, for those whom the rumor was designed. I could rightfully show you where to find the entrance into the Goblin Kingdom, from Fantastica, but I'm afraid that your father never designed this entrance for you to use. If you want to survive, then you will have to take another path."

Jareth managed to pull himself up again, although he was not sure how. He felt that he probably would have been better off if he had never been given a name. His mismatched eyes gazed deep into Aurelia Skye's golden, mirror-like eyes and then down to AURYN, which was hung around her neck. The Childlike Empress finished speaking as she took Jareth by the hand, "Atreyu has retrieved your crew members, Tigerlily and Captain James Hook. They landed close to his village inside Tempastee Lake. Their wounds have been dressed, and they are recovering as we speak. The vessel, which you crashed landed in, has been completely repaired by Captain Blackbeard and his crew, who know a great deal about pirate ships. "

Aurelia Skye looked at Young Jareth's mournful expression, as she said, "Do not despair, Jareth Goblin King, Jr. You are your father's son, and your mother's son – which makes your stronger than you know. Even stronger then them in many ways. I am going to give you a guide who can help you pass back through the boundaries of Fantastica, for she was once a human long ago, but she has only forgotten. Her name is Dorothy Gale, and she will lead you and your friends back to the other side with the help of Mayestril – the Wind Giant of the West. Go now, and be brave. Remember! When you need the Goblin King, you only need to say the words, and he will be there at the speed of a wish."

Jareth had looked down for a minute and when he looked back up again, suddenly, he was standing in the middle of the Greenskin's village, where Atreyu – a native, warrior boy of nearly fifteen, who looked very similar to Tigerlily both in coloring, clothing, and sharp, dark features - was walking towards him followed by Tigerlily, Captain Hook, and a new girl, who Jareth had never seen before.

A tall, gangly, plain girl of about twelve, or thirteen was dressed in a blue and white gingham dress with white puffed sleeves. Her turquoise-blue eyes and chocolate-brown braids reminded Jareth of a girl that he once knew from school, but could not recall the name of anymore. The new girl had a little dog that followed close behind her. Her face had the same confusion spread upon it that Young Jareth's had. She stopped for a moment and adjusted a pair of ruby red slippers on her feet that matched the color of Falcor's eyes. Jareth hadn't been properly introduced to her, but he was fairly certain that this was his guide out of Fantastica, _Little Dorothy Gale_.


	11. Riding the Wind

**"The Key to The Kingdom"**

_(c) Rebekah L. Copeland, Aiijuin Graphics 2011_

Disclaimer * Based on "Labyrinth" by The Jim Henson Company (c) 1986 "Peter Pan" and characters were written respectively by J. M. Barrie "The Neverending Story" aka "_Die unendliche Geschichte" _and all of its characters were written respectively by Michael Ende.  
>"Wizard of Oz" and its characters were written by L. Frank Baum<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Eleven: Riding the Wind<strong>

Dorothy Gale looked nervously down at her scruffy, little puppy and said, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto." At this remark, Young Jareth raised his eyebrows a bit and replied sarcastically, "Do you think?"

The two children were looking up at the Jolly Roger as it's massive ramp was being lowered towards them. Tigerlily had been preoccupied speaking with Atreyu near the front of the ship as the two of them pointed upwards at the bow. _If Jareth could only have understood them!_ Luckily for him, he didn't have to. Atreyu walked away from Tigerlily and over towards the Goblin King's son. Atreyu had the guise of a man who had braved a thousand harsh summers embedded within his ageless, ebony eyes. He gazed deep into the Goblin Prince's mismatched-eyes and asked, "Are you the one they call, 'Jaye?'

Jareth looked behind him for a moment and then pointed questionably towards himself. "Are you talking about me?" After the prince had seen that Atreyu had nodded, he continued, "No! My name is Jareth."

"But Tigerlily told me that you were… oh, nevermind. It doesn't matter. You're eyes are blue and green, so I'm certain that you are who I've been instructed to speak with. I've have recently been charged to deliver a message to you from the Childlike Empress."

"But I was just there in her palace only moments before. Why didn't she tell me then?"

Atreyu laughed, "It's hardly like her to have forgotten anything. She probably figured that you had seen enough of her for one afternoon. Ha! I know! I've stood in her presence before. It can be difficult to handle after a few minutes. Anyway, she told me to tell you that since your faeries, who supported your vessel, were all blown away during your entry into Fantastica - she ordered a new set of flying devices be attached to your vessel for your journey home again."

"Oh," Jareth replied rather underwhelmed by the message. He had hoped that Aurelia Skye was going to have Atreyu tell him where he might find the entrance into the Goblin Kingdom once he had returned home again. "Well, tell her thanks. Okay?" The Goblin Prince paused for a moment and then watched Atreyu walk back towards Tigerlily. Before the young warrior could return completely to her side, Jareth inquired loudly, "But, of course, you're coming with us on the journey home, right?"

Atreyu shook his head and replied, "No. I'm sorry, Jareth. I have to stay out here and guide the Wind Giant, Mayestril, otherwise you may end up in the wrong place. Wind Giants don't _often_ like to take orders, even if they have been given directly by the Childlike Empress herself. I've dealt with the Western Wind Giant once before on my journey to save Fantastica long ago. It took me many years, but I think I know how to handle him now. I just hope the other three Wind Giants don't interfere – or we may have a problem."

Something about Atreyu's last statement sounded a little unsure. Jareth wondered if he was ever going to get out of Fantastica at this rate. Suddenly, he smelled a spicy odor of smoke rolling from the stern of the Jolly Roger. He darted towards it quickly - thinking that the ship had caught fire - and found Captain James Hook leaning up against the main rudder and smoking a cigar with a group of similar looking pirate grown ups. Hook ignored Jareth's intrusion completely as he was exchanging battle stories with a black-bearded captain standing next to him. The pirate captains - both child and man - looked towards King and snickered to themselves. This infuriated Jareth, because he didn't like to be made a fool of – _even if he didn't know what they had been laughing about_. Without thinking, he grabbed the cigar from Hook's mouth and flung it to the ground. King shouted, "Are you mad, or something? Even if you are really a man, you're still just a kid right now! You shouldn't be smoking!"

Captain Hook rolled his eyes and walked away with a sneer, as he shouted arrogantly, "Push off, Pan-wannabe! I think I hear your daddy calling. Oh, sorry. I forgot – he wouldn't call for you. He's abandoned you to rot on my ship with me!"

Jareth was so furious that he could hardly see straight. Hook's unrelenting digs about his father drove him to near-insanity. Tigerlily ran over and grasped King's shoulders. She whispered in her broken English, "No manners has he! Forget him, Jaye." Jareth however, pushed the native girl away from himself with such incredible strength that she nearly tumbled onto the ground. He bellowed at her, "I SAID MY NAME IS JARETH!"

Dorothy startled from her locked gaze with the Jolly Roger and spun around in order to see the commotion. Little Toto yipped excitedly and hid behind Dorothy's leg. Atreyu ran over towards Tigerlily and Jareth. The Greenskin Warrior shouted, "You had all better hurry and board the ship! Mayestril's nearly here!"

Sure enough, the ground had begun to quake beneath everybody's feet. The silver grasslands had started to whip about erratically with the high blades of grass dancing in unison towards the right and the left as if they had been waltzing at a fast tempo. All of the Atreyu's people's tents looked like mini black pyramids against the golden skies of sunset – which was now turning ever grayer by the second. A massive wall of thick, impenetrable, ashen clouds spun closer and closer towards the Jolly Roger and its crew with each passing moment.

Dorothy was the first to react to Mayestril's appearance, "We should get underground and take cover from the storm quickly! These things happen near my town all of the time!"

Jareth wrinkled his nose at Dorothy's comment, as Tigerlily began to shove both he and Captain Hook up the ramp of the Jolly Roger. The prince considered the approaching Wind Giant, and scowled at Dorothy, "I thought that you said you were from Kansas!"

Black Beard and his men were blown away as Mayestril whirled nearer. The ramp of the ship had not yet been raised, and Dorothy was pushed by Tigerlily from the rear up its incline. After everybody was accounted for and on board, Tigerlily ran back down once more and over towards Atreyu. Hook, Dorothy, and Jareth were trying their best to stand up on the deck, but all they could manage was just peering curiously over the side railing. The children on the ship watched Tigerlily take Atreyu by the hand far below and kiss him tenderly on the lips. Even though they looked like two embracing miniature dolls down on the distant plains, Jareth could not miss Atreyu's blush of raspberry red spread sheepishly across his face. Quickly, Tigerlily remembered herself and broke from the Greenskin Warrior as she sprinted back onto the ship as the ramp was raised at last!

The wind grew fiercer and fiercer as Hook shouted, "_Hurry! Tie yourselves to the masts of the ships with the rope!_" The child captain tossed some thick skeins of rope towards all three of his crewmates – well, four - counting the pup, of course! Tigerlily caught the ropes and hastened to knot Dorothy, Toto, and Jareth to the main mast at the center of the deck. Then, she tied herself onto one of the secondary masts. In the meantime, Hook had ran up towards the helm and tethered himself to a thick, iron pylon near the wooden wheel in order to steer the ship during their outbound trip from Fantastica.

Jareth could see from the glint in Captain Hook's eyes that he enjoyed every moment of the upcoming challenge. The pirate captain raised his gleaming, silver hook high into the air and laughed insanely. Then, he glanced deviously at Dorothy Gale and shouted, "Hey, Girlie! If you're supposed to be our guide, then hurry up and guide us out of here!

Jareth Goblin King, Jr. looked towards Dorothy. He shouted above the deafening winds, "_So, what are you going to do?_"

Gale looked at him with her long braided pigtails whipping her in the face and screeched back, "_I don't know! I don't even know why I'm here! AHHHH!_"

At Dorothy's screams the Jolly Roger lifted off of the grasslands and began to swirl around and around within the vortex of Mayestril. Higher and higher, the ship rose into the clouds. Jareth had to cover his ears in order to protect them from the explosive pressure and thundering sounds of the Wind Giant.

Dorothy began to cry over and over, "_Oh! There's no place like home! There's no place like home! There's no place like… Golly! At this rate we're going to end up somewhere over the rainbow if we lift any higher!_"

Unfortunately, that break in Dorothy's concentration from the unbeknownst spell - which she had been casting by the power of her ruby slippers - had entirely changed the course of the Jolly Roger. For one minute, the whole ship and its crew were heading towards Kansas somewhere back on Earth, and the next, the ship capsized upside down, and then rolled forwards - bow beneath stern. Jareth was glad that he hadn't had anything to eat while he had visited the Childlike Empress, because it probably would have been coming back up again.

The ship hurled and tossed as Hook was flung backwards away from the helm. The wheel spun out of control, and he could not stand up in order to grasp it again. Luckily, he had tied himself to the pylon earlier, otherwise he would have been thrown overboard!

Every wooden board nailed onto the deck of the Jolly Roger was groaning from the strain of the storm. One of the mighty masts had finally relented to the storm and splintered in half, but fortunately it was not one of the ones which any person had been tied to. ~Thank goodness!~ _The sound of its crack had been absolutely dreadful, though!_

After a few seconds had passed and without any warning, the wind simply stopped. All grew deathly quiet. Jareth opened his eyes and glanced around. The ship had halted all movement. Mayestril, the Wind Giant of the West, had gone. The Goblin Prince looked above him and saw a serene, cotton-candy-blue sky standing softly overhead. Tigerlily began to make odd grunting sounds over on the other mast as she struggled to untie herself. Hook stood up, which he did quite successfully in a matter of seconds. _It must be those sea legs,_ Young Jareth thought – as his stomach still churned worse than a stormy sea.

Hook held tightly to the railing as he glided on his patent-leather boots down the steps of the bridge and towards the main deck where Dorothy and Jareth were tied. He and Tigerlily helped free the two children and the little dog too. Toto seemed healthy and excited. He licked Hook on the face, as the pirate captain pursed his lips and looked annoyed by the mutt's affections. _At least, he tried to act annoyed anyway._ It was all too clear to Young Jareth that Captain Hook had actually enjoyed Mayestril's drawn voyage.

When Jareth King was freed, he realized that he was sliding downhill towards the ship's ramp. Apparently, the ship must have been beached. It was leaning towards one side, because its gigantic keel on the bottom had prevented it from standing completely upright.

Hook was too distracted with the damage that had been inflicted upon his vessel to even bother looking where he and his crewmates had been involuntarily dry-docked. However, Tigerlily, Dorothy, and Young Jareth were glancing over the railing at the crowds of colorful little people beginning to swarm the ship far below.


	12. Wicked Appeal

**"The Key to The Kingdom"**

_(c) Rebekah L. Copeland, Aiijuin Graphics 2011_

Disclaimer * Based on "Labyrinth" by The Jim Henson Company (c) 1986 "Peter Pan" and characters were written respectively by J. M. Barrie "The Neverending Story" aka "_Die unendliche Geschichte" _and all of its characters were written respectively by Michael Ende. "Wizard of Oz" and its characters were written by L. Frank Baum

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Twelve: Wicked Appeal<strong>

The throngs of tiny people down below grew ever larger by the second, as several of them began to take aim at the Jolly Roger with lit cannons and rifles. Dorothy spun around towards Jareth and shouted, "It's the Munchkins! I'm back in the land of Oz!"

Jareth looked over at Tigerlily and mouthed the words, "Oz?" She only replied with a shrug. King tapped Dorothy Gale on the arm and asked, "I'm sorry, but I thought that we were going back to Kansas. Is this even the planet Earth?"

Gale smiled. "No," she started, "It's a land that exists over the rainbow. It used to be run by a powerful wizard who called himself Oz. He flew back home again, though. At least, I think that he did. Then, Glinda – the Good Witch of the North – helped me use the power of the ruby slippers to return back to Kansas again."

"Then, you must not have done a very good job of using those ruby shoes correctly," Hook replied, having completed a full assessment of his ship's damage. Dorothy raised her eyebrows in confusion, as Hook answered her intuitive expression, "Because you ended up in Fantastica somehow, Stupid Child!"

Jareth and Tigerlily rushed to calm the furious pirate captain. Hook's forget-me-not eyes of blue turned towards Jareth as he heaved, "The main rudder of the ship has been lost. We'll need to find another one and have it attached before we can sail underway again."

King asked the captain, "Can't we sail without it? Atreyu said that the Childlike Empress had Blackbeard and his men attach flying devices to the ship." Hook was clearly becoming more agitated by the second. He answered, "Of course, we can _fly_ the ship without the rudder, but we cannot steer her without it. How do you expect to reach your father's _beloved kingdom_ without any method of turning the ship about inside of the clouds? We'll be lost forever! Haven't you ever sailed a ship before, boy?"

"No, but I did ride the ferry once from Jersey to Ellis Island and back again. At least, I think I did," Young Jareth narrowed his eyes, trying to grasp the touch of a fleeting memory swimming about within his head. Hook was not amused. He walked away from the trio of other children to brood over near his ship's broken mast. Tigerlily was about to comfort Hook, when Toto began to snarl and growl. Dorothy, Tigerlily, and the Goblin Prince all ran to gaze upon the source of the pup's frightful rage. Down below, the Munchkins had lit a cannon containing a grappling hook on the end. They had the cannon aimed towards the ramp and suddenly - **BOOOOM!**

The hook was launched into the air with a gray puff of smoke and the lingering smell of sulfur. It soared high above the deck of the Jolly Roger and sailed down just as quickly as it had been launched. The arrow-like ends caught hold of the railing near the ramp and poked a hole in it with its sharp edges. Several of the Munchkins began to scale the rope quickly until they reached the main deck of the Jolly Roger.

Everything had happened too fast for Hook and his crew to stop them. Captain Hook withdrew his sword from its scabbard, but because he was much smaller than the adult-sized blade, he could not maneuver it as easily as he had as a man. The Munchkins warriors, who had climbed the rope, withdrew their spears tucked behind their backs. They aimed them at Jareth and his present company with a fire of fierceness lit within their eyes. Dorothy picked up Toto and shouted, "Please! Don't you remember me? I'm Dorothy! The Good Witch of the North gave me the Wicked Witch of the East's ruby slippers and sent me down the yellow brick road. All of you helped to lead me out of the Munchkin City! I defeated the Wicked Witch of the West. _Hey!_ Doesn't any one of you hear me, or remember me at all?"

Apparently, the Munchkins either didn't take notice of, or didn't recall Dorothy Gale. They held steadfast to their spears and never withdrew them for a second, nor broke eye contact with their prisoners. Tigerlily and Hook were not ones for retreat, but a voice inside of Jareth's head whispered, "_Surrender. It's the only way to win._" The Goblin Prince spun around quickly and barked at his comrades, "No! No! We have to give up! They won't hurt us! Tigerlily! Hook! _Please!_ Captain Hook, please drop your sword. We'll be okay."

Hook hesitated for a moment, and begrudgingly did as the boy had asked. He threw down his sword, and it landed near the heels of his boots. Tigerlily shot Jareth an untrusting glance. Dorothy held tight to Toto, but since she hadn't been armed, she had been captured and bound by the Munchkin Warriors first. As more Munchkin people entered the vessel, the ramp was lowered, and Hook and his makeshift crew were prodded into the heart of the brightly-painted Munchkin City down below.

The group of children were taken directly to the leader of the Munchkins. He was a very tiny, stout man-like creature that stood only as high as Jareth's waist. He was adorned from head to toe in a tight-fitting, emerald green suit and had a matching messenger cap placed upon his balding white head. It curled up on the sides like wet parchment paper. "I am Moz," the Munchkin leader announced into the air, almost as if he were addressing everybody and not just the prisoners of the Jolly Roger. Then, he finished with an emphatic and excessively flamboyant inhale, "And I am the Mayor of the Munchkin People!"

Hook wasn't impressed. He lunged forward towards the mayor, but was hauled back by Munchkin soldiers who tugged persuasively at his bonds. Moz leapt and hid behind his desk of glimmering emerald – which _oddly_ was placed outside in the open air within the center of the Munchkin City. _What's with all this green?_ Jareth thought to himself. The people seemed to revere the color, as if it were sacred to them. The rounded little huts were pastel green, and the gardens of wildflowers were filled with so much green that King thought for certain that he was going to have a green headache in a minute, or two. Luckily, the road beneath everybody's feet was paved in bright yellow bricks. In fact, they were such a rich, primary yellow color, that Young Jareth deduced that the Munchkin City must have been designed by a kindergartener armed with a twelve count box of Crayola Crayons.

When Moz saw that Hook had been secured, he stepped out from behind his desk again. The Mayor began to strut about like a peacock, and wave his hands wildly into the air as he spoke to everybody once again, "You have been brought here today, to face the trial for your crimes!"

Jareth peeked towards Dorothy, and Dorothy returned his stare with a shake of her head. Hook sneered, "What crimes have we committed? We've only just arrived here, you Pompous, Fat Pumpkin!" King tried to restrain a giggle. Captain Hook definitely had a way with name-calling that would have made any school bully shrink back in defeat. For the first time since they had been brought before the Munchkin leader, the children had actually held Moz's undivided attention towards them. His glare fell especially forceful upon James Hook.

Moz's beady chestnut-colored eyes and ridiculous, pointed black mustache –which was curled up at the sides like his hat, twitched as he replied to Hook's question, "You are children. And all children must be eradicated!"

Dorothy startled before screaming in her strong southern accent, "You mean you're gonna kill us? But – but you never killed children before! Why would you do such a horrible thing? We didn't do anything to you! I was a bit younger when I killed the Wicked Witch, but I'm still a child now as I was then!"

Moz stepped closer to Dorothy and Toto as he replied, "Foolish Girl! After you slain the Western Witch, another stepped in to take her place."

Tigerlily looked at Jareth as Moz paused for a moment and then continued, "She is even more vile than the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wicked Witch of the East combined."

"And what does this have to do with us being children?" King interrupted. Moz spun on his pointy, curly-toed shoes and replied, "The one who has confiscated the Wicked Witch of the West's castle is but a human child, like yourselves – however her magic of darkness resonates throughout our lands. With her succession to the throne of the Dark Lands, she has brought upon us seasons of winter and cold. Now, we Munchkins fear for our crops and our very ways, as we cannot withstand the ever worsening frost each year. Once it was always summer and daylight here, but now comes the night and the winter. The child witch, or Sartheya – as she is known, has spread her curse upon us with this great evil. Therefore, we consider all human children – such as yourselves, to be her spies and minions of Darkness.

Forgetting that he was now a child himself, Hook seemed pretty satisfied with Moz's story that all children were the epitome of Darkness. _At least, he considered that blasted Peter Pan to be the devil's child at times!_

Tigerlily squirmed in order to break free, sensing a barter for their freedom would be futile anyway. Besides, she knew that she didn't speak enough of the Munchkin language – which was oddly similar to English for some reason - to make such an arrangement anyway. She ducked down steathfully, and managed to escape her bonds as she stole one of the spears from the Munchkin guards and brought it down forcefully upon him. The other guards tried to retaliate, but Tigerlily was simply too fast to catch.

The Munchkins threw their spears at her, and she glided out of the way moments before the weapons had struck her. Hook took this opportune moment of distraction in order to grab Dorothy Gale and her pup, and run towards the small break in the mass. He knew that he needed to repair the Jolly Roger even before attempting to lift off of the ground, but he figured that it would be better to chance lifting off anyway – even if he couldn't steer the vessel. With Dorothy in tow, he ducked behind a small round-roofed, pastel-green silo tower and waited for a clearing to his ship. Meanwhile, he observed Tigerlily as she fended off the rest of the horde. She was stronger than any child that he had ever seen. Sometimes, Hook wondered if she were really a grown woman trapped in the body of a child.

Jareth Goblin King, Jr. just stood there very still, looking very taken aback. He hadn't even tried to break free, as he began to stroke at the warm, golden amulet around his neck,. He couldn't dismiss the advice of the strange voice which had resonated within his head earlier. King felt like he was a spectator watching a baseball game in the bleachers of a stadium. He had been near the action and observing everything that was happening with great interest, but he hadn't actually taking part in the game whatsoever.

Jareth looked off into the horizon of this green-hued land and thought that he saw something floating towards him slowly. It looked like a large, pink bubble - the kind of bubble that one sees in a sink full of soapy water. It veered closer and closer as the chaos within the Munchkin city grew worse and worse. Tigerlily had tied three of the Munchkin guards together and was now releasing a flock of chickens and geese from their pens. Women Munchkins ran around like panicked hens trying to wrangle their livestock back into their fences. Baby Munchkins wailed fearfully in their cradles from all of the ruckus, and the children Munchkins fled down the yellow brick road – scattering in all directions like frightened crows.

The bubble had tripled in size now, and hovered for a moment over the center of the Munchkin City, where Moz and his emerald-colored desk were still lingering in shock. The town had a strange silence and peace fall over it, as the bubble manifested into a petal pink ball-gowned woman who wore an iridescent pointed crown with twelve stars atop her auburn-colored hair.

"Alexia!" Jaye shouted in recognition of the woman. Tigerlily stopped her coup and turned towards the prince, as Hook and Dorothy peered curiously around the pastel-green tower in the same direction. The auburn-haired woman chuckled lightly, as Moz shouted defiantly, "How dare you address Glinda, the Good Witch of the North by such a nasty word! Kneel before her, Human! Kneel and meet your doom!"

Glinda held a wand within her hand that had a five-pointed star at the tip. It was covered in a silver glittery substance that sparkled in the sunlight like her flowing gown. Long, see-through iridescent wings floated silently behind her like a butterfly, but did not flap, nor bend to the soft breeze of the wind blowing upon her. Jaye thought that she was probably the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen, and she had looked nearly like a person whom he had forgotten ~until~ only a moment before. Ignoring Moz's threats, Jareth asked, "Are you certain that you are not Alexia? You look like exactly like her. You even have her amber-colored – oh, wait – no… You're eyes are violet. You really aren't her then, are you?"

Glinda laughed again as her buxom, ivory bosom rose and fell softly. She answered in a sweet voice that reminded Jareth of rose petals for some reason, "I'm sorry, Dear Child, but I am as Moz has said. I am Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. And you must be, Jareth – The Son of the Goblin King. I recognized your eyes immediately when I spied you through my crystal ball inside of my watchtower within the Northern Realm."

"You know who I am?" Jareth asked meekly.

"Of course, I do, My Goblin Prince," Glinda smiled, "And so does Sartheya, who has been expecting your arrival. She'll be so glad to know that you've arrived at last!"

Jareth had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he thought about the Child Witch of the West anticipating his coming. He felt like he had been betrayed by someone that he had trusted, but then he remembered that Glinda was not Alexia – his aunt. She had been a total stranger.


	13. Locked in a Tower

**"The Key to The Kingdom"**

_(c) Rebekah L. Copeland, Aiijuin Graphics 2011_

Disclaimer * Based on "Labyrinth" by The Jim Henson Company (c) 1986 "Peter Pan" and characters were written respectively by J. M. Barrie "The Neverending Story" aka "_Die unendliche Geschichte" _and all of its characters were written respectively by Michael Ende. "Wizard of Oz" and its characters were written by L. Frank Baum

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Thirteen: Locked in a Tower<strong>

A moment had hardly passed, when the four children and shaggy, little pooch had been instantly whisked away from the Munchkin City and into a night enveloped land containing steep, dangerous mountains and sharp, treacherous alcoves. With a flip of her wand, Glinda had worked her magic without so much as giving a warning first. Jareth, Tigerlily, Captain Hook, and Dorothy were all standing helplessly before a massive concrete castle with a bottomless moat dug around its perimeter. There were guards dressed in floor-length, gray coats patrolling the area in flanks. Their matching attire was adorned with different red and blue markings, which probably discerned their difference in rank and importance.

Jaye sensed that his impending doom was drawing near, as Glinda led the quartet in through the massive wooden drawbridge that had been lowered down with chains thicker in diameter than Jareth's skinny body. He turned towards Dorothy Gale and whispered, "Psst! How did you kill the evil witch last time, just in case we need to do it again?"

With a look of deep regret in her blue eyes, Gale replied mournfully, "I had to put out the fire on Scarecrow, and I hit the witch with the water by mistake. She melted after that."

"It _WAS_ only water, right?" Jareth asked in shock. Dorothy nodded and answered tearfully, "I think so. Yes, but I swear I didn't mean to harm her. I swear on my Aunty Em's and Uncle Henry's grave!"

The Good Witch of the North led them deeper and deeper into the Western Fortress. They walked through a vast, windowless, rectangular hall of jade-colored marble, but most of it had been occluded as the darkness crept down from the ceiling and spread out onto the floor beneath everyone's feet. There was a lingering odor of cinnamon everywhere, which had reminded Jareth of Alexia's baked apple strudel. His stomach began to rumble in hunger.

He had nearly forgotten that it had probably been a whole day since he had eaten anything. King's mind suddenly betrayed him and began to think about cherry-vanilla cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies and … and … And suddenly, Jareth thought that he was beginning to smell a freshly-baked chocolate cake followed by the waxy odor of newly lit birthday candles. Apparently, he was not the only one. Tigerlily began to sniff through the air. Dorothy said outloud, "By Golly, I think that someone's been cooking somethin' sweet in here! Smells like Auntie Em's famous German Chocolate Cake!"

Glinda grinned, but did not answer. As the children cleared the darkened hall, they climbed up about a hundred steep, concrete steps that matched the castle walls. Each stair was smooth, sleek, and completely uninviting under Jareth's small, tired feet. He felt as if he would never reach the top, until he finally saw a crack of light coming from under a double entryway just up ahead. When the last person cleared the final step, everyone, including Glinda, stood before an enormous, square-like banquet table that stretched lengthwise across the great room. There were three gothic-looking fireplaces with gigantic mantles carved into the wall just behind the table. In front of the center fireplace, sat the silhouette of a person slumped to one side within a massive throne. In front of this shadowy figure stood a triple-tiered, chocolate cake embellished from top to bottom with a rainbow display of thin, party candles.

Glinda kept her delicate fingers locked onto the back of Jareth King's neck and swept him forward, until he had finally reached the sprawling individual. As he peered curiously into the throne, he was coolly greeted by a little girl with pin-straight, nearly-raven hair that hung loosely over her shoulders. He skin was the palest that he had ever seen, and her fingers were long and slender. Like many of the other people whom Jareth had met since his kidnapping, this child also looked to be his age. It was difficult to tell exactly how tall she was because – not only was she slumped and seated - but she was also dressed in a lengthy midnight-colored cloak that spread down to the floor and had a high wizard collar that encircled behind the back of her head. Her pale little head cradled itself idly on her left hand. She looked absolutely bored to death.

Jareth strived to see the color of the girl's eyes, but the room was too dark, and the lit party candles and fireplaces' fires cast tall shadows on everything. Her eyes could have been black, or they could have blue. _It was hard to say!_ Outside an earsplitting rap of thunder boomed and shook the great room. Dorothy jumped from the clatter and nearly tripped over Captain Hook. Glinda began to speak to the slumped girl, "Sartheya, I've brought some guests to your birthday party, my Dear! They are the one's you've been expecting."

Sartheya, the Child Witch of the West pouted and ignored Glinda at first. She remained motionless as the candlelight from the cake glimmered into her catlike eyes. When Glinda prodded again, Sartheya shouted, "I said I don't want to be bothered! Why can't you just go away! You evil, evil faerie!"

Glinda shoved Jareth into a seat by Sartheya, and then followed suit with the remaining children. She waved her wand like an orchestra conductor in order to lead the children in some sort of sing-along song. Hook just narrowed his eyes and shook his head, while Tigerlily inched her seat as far away from Glinda as she could manage without being noticed. Dorothy asked, "What's going on, Good Witch from the North?"

Glinda chimed all-too-sweetly, "We're having a birthday party for Sartheya today. She's ten years old! Isn't that right, Sartheya! Now everybody! A-one and a-two and a-three, _Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday Dear Sarthe…_!"

Not to Jareth's surprise, nobody else joined Glinda's singing. Sartheya didn't wait for the song to finish. She swung her cloak-draped arm across the table, knocking the cake and its contents down onto the floor. Hook slid his seat backwards in order to avoid an outfit full of cake. Tigerlily slipped under the table in order to avoid being burnt from the flying candles. Dorothy fell backwards on her chair, and took Toto down with her. Sartheya screamed at Glinda, "I WANT YOU TO GO AWAY! It's ALL YOUR fault that I'm trapped here! I never liked it here! Why did you take me away from my home? I hate, hate, HATE you!"

The Child Witch jumped from her chair with a sob, and ran across the room as fast as her little legs could carry her. Glinda sighed and said to Jareth, "I'm sorry. She's been in a bad mood for some time, but she'll come around. Anyway, the bathrooms and bedrooms are up on the third floor, and I'd advise against you walking through the vine garden outside. The vines have been known to eat people every now and then. Do enjoy your stay, my Little Prince! Farewell!"

Before Jareth could even ask what was going on, Glinda evaporated into a bubble and floated out of a high window near the ceiling of the main banquet hall. That sinking feeling had returned into his stomach again, and this time he was certain that it was a combination of fear mixed with hunger.

The whole castle was freezing inside. It didn't help that the ominous storms surrounding the castle began to grow fiercer. Dorothy quivered as Toto whined softly within her arms. She stroked his little ears and snuggled him close to her chest. Hook sensed that the faerie had left, so he waved his hand and whispered, "Now's our chance! Let's leave this dismal place before the pink winged-thing returns again!"

Tigerlily nodded, as Jareth began to follow she and Hook out of the double-entryway and down the steps. Dorothy was about to turn around and follow, when Sartheya had returned. She looked at the children and said firmly, "You can't ever leave here. Not ever again."

While Tigerlily and Dorothy looked a bit surprised, Hook spun about and sneered, "Oh, and who's going to stop us? There's only one of you and four of us, Girl!"

Sartheya looked up into Hook's piercing eyes and replied, "Glinda will stop you. Just like she's stopped me." Jareth wasn't sure if Sartheya was telling the truth. From what he had heard from Moz, it sounded like Sartheya was the evil one, but from how Sartheya spoke, it sounded more like Glinda was the root of everybody's problems in Oz. Sartheya took this moment of silence to sit down on the concrete floor near the top of the stairs.

Jareth thought about all of the fairytales with witches in them. Each of them was evil and cruel, except for those in the Harry Potter stories. He wasn't sure what to believe at the moment. Glinda looked like Alexia Williams, but she certainly didn't act like her. She was much too sweet. In fact, Jareth marveled at just how _unrealistically _polite she had been to him. Sartheya was much more subdued and wholly realistic as a person. To Jareth, she didn't speak like the ruler of all Darkness. King kneeled down next to Sartheya. He looked her into her veiled eyes and asked, "Why would Glinda take you from your home? –Sorry, you mentioned it earlier, just after you smashed the cake across the room."

Sartheya took a moment to size up Jareth, and then she replied, "My home had fallen under attack. It happened very long ago, when I was just a baby, but ~strangely~ I can still remember it like it was yesterday."

Hook and Tigerlily moved in close to listen, while Dorothy kept her distance from the Child Witch of the West. Sartheya continued, "The King of the Underworld, Master of the Damned – had decided to expand the borders of his kingdom and invade the mortal realm. My father's kingdom stood between the two realms, and he was the first to fall under attack during the invasion of the Demon Seed, the Army of the Undead. My mother had escaped, only to be taken prisoner shortly after. My father tried to rescue her, but he was never seen from, nor heard from again.  
>Anyway, I'm not sure what happened after that, but Glinda brought me to this place and I've been here ever since under her tutelage - forever trapped inside this stupid, empty castle! Glinda named me Sartheya – it means 'dark child,' but I don't think that's my real name. I can't recall much else, but I'd like to get out of here and find my mother and father. Glinda won't let me leave."<p>

"Why not?" Dorothy asked, beating Jareth to the question.

Sartheya shrugged, "She says that I am dangerous to Oz. She says that I spread time, _whatever that means._ Glinda keeps me locked here to contain my power, but as I've been growing, she says its been spreading. I know that I've been branded a wicked witch by the people of Oz, but I'm only a princess locked away in a tower. You must believe me, please!"

Jareth remembered Glinda's words from earlier as he watched the receding storm outside. He asked Sartheya, "Glinda mentioned that you've been expecting us. Is that true?"

Sartheya scrunched up her nose and answered, "I don't know. I only know that I've been waiting for the son of a great king. I was told from a voice inside of the Western Witch's crystal ball that he would arrive here and rescue me. I don't know how true that is, because Glinda always lies to me and plays tricks on me. Anyway, I've sort of given up hope of being rescued by now. I'm sure that its all been fake."

Jareth smiled proudly, shining the amulet towards Sartheya's eyes. He shouted, "No! It isn't fake, Sartheya! For I am Jareth, Son of the Goblin King!

Sartheya smirked as she asked, "Is your father a great king?"

Young Jareth shrugged and answered half-heartedly, "Well, he sounds like a really great king, but I've never actually met him in person. "

Sartheya rolled her eyes, replying skeptically, "That's not very reassuring."


	14. Dreamy Reflections

**"The Key to The Kingdom"**

_(c) Rebekah L. Copeland, Aiijuin Graphics 2011_

Disclaimer * Based on "Labyrinth" by The Jim Henson Company (c) 1986  
>"Peter Pan" and characters were written respectively by J. M. Barrie<br>"The Neverending Story" aka "_Die unendliche Geschichte" _and all of its characters were written respectively by Michael Ende. "Wizard of Oz" and its characters were written by L. Frank Baum  
>"Alice in WonderlandAlice Through the Looking-Glass" was written by Lewis Carroll

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Fourteen: Dreamy Reflections<strong>

The sun had never quite emerged once the storms had finally stopped raging over the castle by early evening. A subdued sky lingered tranquilly upon the horizon of Western Oz. Captain Hook had been giving Jareth odd faces for the last hour or two, ever since Sartheya had told her story to the children. Feeling self-conscious, Young Jareth had finally lost his patience and yelled, "WHAT?" He glared at Hook, as the pirate captain replied with a snicker, "What's the matter, Boy? Do I make you uneasy?"

Jareth scratched at his neck, answering, "No. Yes. Well. Why do you keep staring at me like that?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just curious when you were going to conquer the universe, 'tis all."

"Huh?" Jareth stepped back, wondering what Hook had been talking about. Hook took advantage of Jareth's setback and mimicked his earlier words in a squeaky, mocking voice, "'_For I am Jareth, Son of the Goblin King…._' la-di-da-di-da!" Then, his voice switched back to normal again, "Did you honestly expect to impress the girl with those words? Silly child! You've come to fight in the battle, but you've forgotten your sword!"

"What battle? What sword?" Jareth asked, confused by Hook's metaphor. Without a moment, Hook answered - as if he had building up to this statement for the last two hours, "You still haven't a hope, or a prayer of finding your father and mother merely because you've been given a new name and a shiny, royal title. You're still the same, scared, little boy who I only just pilfered from his bedroom window, not two nights ago. Now, we're trapped in this fortress with no way of escape. And what keeps us locked within? Not the marching guards aimlessly plodding tritely around a dead hunk of molded concrete. _No!_ But a bubbly, faerie-witch and her spells of enchantment! I detest faeries!"

Jareth narrowed his eyes. He glared at James Hook and replied with great disgust, "All of these problems that we're having were started by _you_! If you hadn't stolen me from my bedroom in the middle of the night, then you wouldn't be stuck in the mess with the rest of us, now would you?

Sartheya looked over from the massive, picture window where she had been standing. She had heard the boys' raised voices. Dorothy, Tigerlily, and she had been engaged in a conversation with one another – recapping their recent adventures with Jareth King to the trapped princess. Now, Sartheya had broken from the group of girls and headed towards Hook and Jaye. Although the daytime had been nearly spent, the sky had brightened from the dissipating storms, and Sartheya was easier to see walking towards them in her floor-length, black cloak. Jareth took notice of her approach and grew silent in acknowledgement of her presence. He had been amazed by Sartheya's advanced vocabulary. Her words hadn't seemed like those of a ten-year old girl. In fact, her mannerisms had seemed more adult-like than childlike as well. She didn't skip towards the child captain and Goblin Prince as a normal child would. Instead, she had glided with her head poised high into the air. Only two hours ago, she had been slumping like a bratty child, but as soon as she had calmed herself, she took on a new personality entirely.

She stopped at King and observed him for a moment without speaking. Then after a few seconds, Sartheya said, "I think there may be a way for us to escape from this place, but it will be extremely dangerous. If we are caught, we could get our heads cut off."

"If you knew about this, then why haven't you tried it before?" Jareth asked, with Hook folding his arms across his chest whilst nodding in agreement. Dorothy Gale and Tigerlily were now strolling towards the Sartheya and the others. The princess took no notice of them as she defended herself stubbornly, "I HAVE tried this before, but I can't reach the exit out! It's too high! If there were more of us, maybe we could stand on each other's shoulders and then pull the last person up through the hole."

"I'd be willing to try anything at this point. Just get me the bloody 'ell out of here!" Hook screamed – turning all shades of temperamental red. Sartheya glanced at Jareth and said softly, "Do you want to try as well?"

"Does any of us have any other way to escape?" Jareth asked, answering her question with a question. She shook her head and said, "No."

"I'm in!" Dorothy voted after eavesdropping on the whole conversation. "I don't like this place much! Lots of bad memories, and I just want to go home. Right, Toto? We want to go home!"

After the dog barked and wagged it tail excitedly. Tigerlily also chimed in, "Yes! We are brave, Sartheya Princess. I choose danger, not prison eternal."

Sartheya looked over at Jareth, who had not answered either way if he wanted to attempt a dangerous escape, or not. He only asked, "Where do we have to go, and what do we have to do?"

A minute later, as the sun was setting in the West, Sartheya led her fellow prisoners down into a dungeon and checked to see if the room was empty. When she had assured that no guards had been watching them, she turned and said, "The guards here only report my location to Glinda, and then only if I've tried to escape. They don't do much else than that since I can't leave the Western Witch's Castle on foot anyway. Glinda doesn't know about this. I've only discovered it about a month ago, as I was hiding from Glinda in the dungeons. Here! Look!"

Sartheya pointed towards a dark corner in the pitch-black, damp dungeon where there was a strange glow emanating from an archway near some iron shackles and a few rickety, old Munchkin skeletons. The princess lowered her voice to a whisper, "You can only enter at nighttime, because that's when she dreams."

"Who dreams?" Hook asked. Sartheya replied, "The little girl who opens the portal between the two worlds. Whenever she dreams, this mirror becomes a doorway into her dream world. Initially, I thought that it was only a dream, or a mirage - of some sort, but then this girl kept returning to the same place every night. Just by chance one evening, I reached out to touch the vision inside of the mirror, and I fell through onto the other side. I walked around for hours – maybe days, until I was chased around by a deck of cards and a wicked queen who wanted to cut off my head. I couldn't find my way back to the mirror, but I did find a miniature door with a hole inside that leads upwards. There was a talking caterpillar and so many strange things that it would probably take a lifetime to describe it all."

Hook gave Jareth a weird look, denoting that Sartheya seemed a bit on the loony side, as she finally finished, "Anyway, I might managed to climb wa~y up the hole, but I couldn't reach the last step out. It took me weeks just to climb to the top. I lost my footing while trying to reach for a tree root at the base of the hole, but I fell back down and was knocked out. When I woke up, I was back in the dungeon again."

"Golly! Are you certain that it wasn't all _really-just_ a dream?" Dorothy Gale waved her hands around in awe at Sartheya's tale. Hook pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. As nobody else had seemed very assured by Sartheya's story, Tigerlily finally cupped her hands over the Witch Princess' shoulder and said, "You must lead on, Dream Warrior. If there is – escape in world of dreams, then faith I have that you… will… take away – us home once more."

Mostly everybody nodded in agreement with Tigerlily, except for the ever-skeptical pirate captain. Despite their doubts, they really hadn't any other master plan that would take them away from Oz. Hook was wincing over the Jolly Roger, and wondered if he would ever see her again. Slowly, the light from the mirror grew brighter, and then a little blonde girl dressed in a tea-length blue dress overlaid with a white apron sprinted after an ornamentally-clothed, white rabbit across the reflection of the wide mirror. Her patent-leather, black shoes were sinking into the mud and leaves, as she could be heard crying, "Oh, please do wait, Mr. Rabbit! Please!"

As soon as the little blonde girl had run past, Sartheya motioned for everyone to hasten into the reflection. Apprehensively, Hook stepped through, followed by Dorothy Gale, and then Tigerlily. Sartheya looked at Jareth and said, "Your turn, Jareth – Son of the Goblin King. If your father is really as powerful as I hope he is - _and hopefully you follow in his footsteps too _– then you should have no problem whatsoever braving this task."

Jareth nodded as he began to step through the mirror. He clutched his amulet tightly within his hands, and said to Sartheya, "It's not that I'm afraid. It's just been a very weird two days. That's all."

With that, both children entered the world beyond the looking-glass. What strange adventure awaited them here? They could only wonder.


End file.
